Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In that blessed house, the five sacred sounds ring out.
In that blessed house the Shabad rings, and the One fills it with almighty power.
Through You, the five troublemakers of wanting are tamed, and even Death, the tormentor, loses its power.
Those who carry this blessing from the very beginning are joined to the One's Name.
Nanak says: they live in peace, and the unstruck music — music that no one plays — sounds in their homes.
Two great images arrive here and stay for the rest of the bani: the panch shabad (the five primal sounds — in yogic tradition, the fivefold inner music heard in deep meditation) and the anhad vaajay — the unstruck melody, music with no instrument and no player, the spontaneous inner resonance of a mind at rest in the One. Both sound in tit ghar sabhaagai — "that blessed house," the body-house of verses 33-38.
Against the music stand the panch doot — the five demons: kaam (desire), krodh (anger), lobh (greed), moh (attachment), ahankaar (ego-pride). The verse's claim is not that they are destroyed but subdued — tuDh vas keetay, brought under Your control. The five passions in Gurmat are not amputated; they are domesticated, turned from masters into servants (a teaching the Aasaa ashtapadees develop as the five "made thoughtful"). And with them falls kaal kantak — death the torturer, death-as-thorn. Where the unstruck sound plays, the fear of death cannot keep its grip.
Note also Dhur karam paa-i-aa — "pre-ordained destiny." Anand Sahib repeatedly holds effort and gift in one hand: the five are subdued "through You," and those attached to the Name were given that attachment. The blessed house is not built by the resident; it is opened to them. The resident's part is to move in and listen.
Which of the five troublemakers — wanting, anger, greed, clinging, pride — gets loudest in you, and what helps it settle?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI