Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In Poh, the deep cold can't reach the soul the Beloved holds close in its arms. Such a soul is captivated by the One's beautiful presence, drawn fully to the sight of it.
Take shelter with the One who holds the whole universe — its service is the only thing that truly pays off. When you join the holy and sing together, nothing corrupt can lay a finger on you. The soul flows back into the very place it first came from, dissolving into the love of the True One.
Once the One takes hold of your hand, you'll never feel that ache of separation again. I'd give myself a hundred thousand times over to the Beloved — my unreachable, unfathomable Friend. Please keep my honor safe; I'm standing at your door, asking. Poh is beautiful, and every comfort comes to the soul the carefree One has gathered in and forgiven.
Poh (December-January) is the dead of winter — the coldest, hardest month, when the cold seems to seep into the bones. And Guru Arjan gives the song's tenderest image of protection against it: the cold does not touch those, whom the Husband Lord hugs close in His Embrace. Picture a child held inside a warm coat against a freezing wind — the cold is real and all around, but it cannot reach the one held close. The soul embraced by the One is warm in the heart of winter.
The stanza states the song's central truth about union with unusual clearness: From where it originated, there the soul is blended again. The soul came from the One, and to the One it returns, dissolving back into its source like a river reaching the sea. This is the homecoming the whole twelve-month journey has been moving toward — not the gaining of something foreign, but the return to where the soul began. And once that hand is taken, it is not let go: When the Supreme Lord God grasps someone's hand, he shall never again suffer separation from Him.
The soul's response to such security is pure, overflowing devotion: I am a sacrifice, 100,000 times, to the Lord, my Friend. Notice that the One is still called Unapproachable and Unfathomable even here, in the warmth of the embrace — it does not stop being infinite by becoming intimate. And the final note is grace and forgiveness: every comfort comes to that one whom the Carefree Lord has forgiven. The warmth in the heart of winter is not earned by the soul's own heat; it is the warmth of being held and forgiven by a One who, untroubled and free, simply gathers the cold soul into its coat.
When have you felt truly 'held' through a cold stretch — warm not because of your own strength but because someone held you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI