Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One fed you inside your mother's womb. Why let the One slip from your mind?
Why forget such a Great Giver, who brought you food in the warm fire of the womb?
Nothing can harm the one the One draws into loving closeness.
The One is the love, and the One is the closeness. The Guru's follower keeps the One in mind always.
Nanak says: why let such a Great Giver slip from your mind?
Maataa kay udar meh partipaal karay so ki-o manhu visaaree-ai — "He nourished you in the mother's womb; why forget Him from the mind?" At its heart is the womb-argument, one of Gurbani's most repeated proofs of providence: agan meh aahaar pahuchaava-ay — He delivered sustenance into the fire. The womb in Indic physiology is agan, fire — the garbh-agni, heat of gestation — and the argument runs: if the Giver's logistics reached you there, sealed beyond all human help, before you could request or deserve, then the Giver's competence is proven in the hardest case. Forgetting such a Giver is not neutral forgetfulness; it is ingratitude toward the oldest kindness in your biography.
The verse then extends the guarantee: os no kihu pohi na sakee jis na-o aapnee liv laav-ay — nothing can touch the one whom He inspires with His own love. And the remarkable line: aapnee liv aapay laa-ay — He Himself attaches His own love. Even the devotion is His doing (the bani's persistent grace-grammar: verse 15's walking, verse 8's giving). The Gurmukh's task is sadaa samaalee-ai — constant remembering-cherishing (samaalnaa: to tend, keep safely, hold in care — the same verb a mother's care would use).
This verse and the next form a pair about the womb: here, the womb as proof of the Giver; next, the womb-fire as mirror of Maya's fire outside. Birth changes the address, not the physics — and not the Caretaker.
What's something that has been taking care of you so reliably you forgot to notice it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI