Everyone Says 'Bliss'; It Comes When Wisdom Heals the Eyes
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Bliss, bliss — everyone talks about bliss. But bliss is known only through the Guru.
Lasting bliss is known only through the Guru, when the Beloved One gives grace.
Giving grace, the One cuts away our wrongs, like a doctor cleaning a wound, and puts the healing ointment of wisdom on our eyes so we can see.
Those whose clinging breaks from the inside are made beautiful by the Shabad, the Word of the True One.
Nanak says: this alone is bliss — the bliss that is known through the Guru.
Aanand aanand sabh ko kahai — "bliss, bliss — everyone says it." There is gentle irony in it: the word is everywhere; the thing is rare. The discriminating claim follows: aanand guroo tay jaani-aa — bliss is known through the Guru. Known, not manufactured. The Guru does not produce bliss; the Guru removes what obscures it, which is why the verse's imagery is medical: sins cut away (kilvikh katay), and gi-aan anjan — the ointment of spiritual wisdom — applied to the eyes. Anjan is the collyrium/kohl used in traditional medicine for clouded sight. Bliss, in other words, is what reality feels like when the eyes are healed.
The hinge line: andrahu jin kaa moh tutaa — those whose attachment breaks from within. Moh (clinging attachment) is not renounced by external gesture — leaving home, changing clothes — but dissolves inwardly when understanding arrives; those people are then "adorned by the True One's Word." This is the pattern of grace that runs through Gurbani: understanding does the work; grace makes the understanding possible; effort opens the curtain but does not create the sun.
Set this verse beside the world it describes: a marketplace where every product is stamped BLISS. The verse does not condemn the wanting — everyone saying "bliss" is everyone genuinely thirsty. It redirects it: the thirst is real; the well is elsewhere.
What's something the world promised would make you happy — and did it keep the promise?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI