Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Come, dear holy friends, let us tell the story of the One — the story too big for words, the way a cup can't hold the ocean.
How can we tell a story that can't be told? Through which door will we find the One?
Give your body, your mind, your wealth — everything — to the Guru. Say yes to the flow of the One's will, and you will find the One.
Say yes to the Guru's guidance, and sing the true Word, the Guru's bani.
Nanak says: listen, holy friends, and tell the story that can't be told.
Akath kee karah kahaanee — "let us tell the story of the Untellable." The phrase akath kahaanee (the unspoken speech, the story that cannot be told) is one of Gurbani's most beloved paradoxes, and here it becomes something friends do together: aavhu sant pi-aariho — come, beloved saints. The impossible telling is communal; sangat is the setting where the inexpressible gets expressed.
The verse then asks its own method question — kit du-aarai paa-ee-ai, through which door? — and answers with surrender, not speech: tan man Dhan sabh sa-up gur ka-o — hand over body, mind, wealth, everything to the Guru — and hukam mani-ai paa-ee-ai — by accepting the hukam, it is found. This is Japji's answer transplanted: Nanak's first pauri asks how the wall of falsehood breaks and answers hukam razai chalna; Guru Amar Das asks how the Untellable is told and answers hukam mannihu. Understanding-acceptance of the flow of existence, not verbal mastery, is the door.
The closing line completes the paradox with a straight face: "listen, O Saints, and tell the Untold Story" — after just proving it cannot be told in words. The resolution: the telling is a life. A person who has surrendered everything and sings the true bani IS the story of the Untellable, told fluently. This anticipates verse 16's warning about babblers: many wander "talking and talking," and none obtain the One by talk. Words about the ocean are not wet.
Can you think of something you understand but can't explain in words? How would you show it instead?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI