Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Countless names. Countless places. Worlds that are inaccessible and unreachable — countless. Even to call them countless is almost too much to hold.
Through letters — the name of the oneness is praised. Through letters — wisdom, songs, and the qualities of the oneness are spoken of. Through letters — we write and speak. Through letters — the story written on each life is read.
But the one who wrote all of these letters — who created the very capacity for language — has no letters written on it that can fully capture it. It is beyond what words can hold.
As it commands, so we receive.
As vast as all of creation — that is how vast the name is. Without the name, there is no place. Everything that exists is an expression of the oneness.
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.
This pauri is a sophisticated meditation on language and its limits — what philosophers call the problem of representation. How do words relate to reality? Can the oneness be named?
Guru Nanak's answer is carefully balanced. Words are precious: they carry wisdom, praise, culture, and love across time and space. The Guru Granth Sahib itself is a monument to the power of language. But words are always approximations. The map is not the territory. The name of the ocean is not the ocean.
The line Jin ayhi likhay tis sir naahi — the one who wrote these letters has no letters written on its head — is one of the most poetic expressions of this limit in all of world literature. The oneness cannot be written about from the outside, because there is no outside. It is the ground within which all writing happens. Every name of the oneness — every scripture, every poem, every prayer — is a finger pointing at the moon. The finger is real and useful. But it is not the moon.
Jaytaa keetaa taytaa naao / Vin naavai naahee ko thaao — as vast as all creation, so vast is the name; without the name, there is no place — is the positive formulation. The name is not a label attached to something. The name IS everything. Every expression of existence is simultaneously a name of the oneness — because everything is an expression of the oneness. This is a non-dualistic view of language: the universe is the oneness speaking itself into being.
The teaching tradition offers a second reading of this line that runs even deeper. Recall the image from Pauri 16 of the ever-flowing pen — hukam writing the story of creation moment by moment. Read through that lens, jaytaa keetaa taytaa naao means: whatever is being created right now, this very moment, is the Name. The Name is not stored in the past or promised in the future; it is what is happening now. To be aware of this unfolding present — to meet each moment as it actually is — is itself naam: not merely the recitation of a word, but the lived awareness of the oneness expressing itself as everything, here, now. This is why the tradition can say that hukam and naam are, in the end, the same thing: to live in step with the flow of existence is already to be keeping the Name.
Have you ever tried to describe a feeling or an experience and found that words just couldn't capture it? What was that like? What does that tell you about the limits of language?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI