Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Countless who meditate. Countless who love. Countless who worship. Countless who push themselves to extremes of discipline, seeking something deeper. Countless who read every sacred text ever written.
Countless who practice yoga and keep their minds detached from the noise of the world. Countless who contemplate virtue and wisdom. Countless the truthful ones. Countless the givers. Countless who face the world with courage and strength. Countless the silent ones who turn their attention within and vibrate with a quiet love.
How many? Countless. More than any number.
What could I possibly say to take all of this in? A single moment of devotion could never be enough — I would give myself to this wonder again and again.
Whatever you find good — that is the right course of action. You are always here. Always safe. Always eternal, O formless one.
People have reached for the One in more ways than anyone can count — and none of those ways is ranked above the others.
Asankh means countless. Guru Nanak says it again and again — eleven times, across eight lines. By the end you stop trying to count and simply feel how big it is — like standing on a beach and trying to count the grains of sand.
Look at who is on the list: people who worship, people who push themselves through hard discipline, people who study scripture, yogis who keep their minds apart from the noise of the world, people who think deeply about goodness, the holy, the givers, the brave, the silent sages. All are named. None is called the one right path. The One receives them all.
This goes to the heart of Japji. The One belongs to no single religion or practice. Across all of history, countless people have reached toward it from every direction. And still it is not used up. Still no one has fully described it.
The teaching tradition notices a change of tone here. Until now Japji has mostly been explaining. From the asankh pauris on, Guru Nanak is closer to meditating out loud. The word is meant to be read slowly, each "countless" stretching the mind a little past what it can hold. So it works as a practice, not only a description. When your own worries feel enormous, step back far enough to feel the real size of things, and they settle back to their proper size. Standing before the countless, the small, defensive self grows quiet.
Then the ending comes back: jo tudh bhaavai saa-ee bhalee kaar / too sadaa salaamat nirankaar — whatever pleases You is good; You are forever safe, the Formless One. It closed the pauri before this one too, and the repeat is on purpose. After naming all that seeking, Guru Nanak does not claim to have mastered it. He bows. Whatever the One finds right is right. This is Mannai — acceptance — sung as poetry.
When you look at how many different ways people try to find meaning — through religion, science, art, service, nature, family — does it feel like they are all reaching for something similar? What do you think that something is?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI