Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Pilgrimage, discipline, compassion, giving — if any of these earn even a sesame seed's worth of honor, it is because of listening, accepting and loving with the heart. Without that inner shift, the outer act is just motion.
The true pilgrimage is the inner one. The sacred site is within. What needs washing is the stain of ego — haumai, the feeling of being separate from everything and everyone.
All virtues are yours, O oneness. I have none of my own. Without virtue, devotion cannot happen.
I bow to the oneness — beautiful, true, and always joyful.
What was the moment when the universe was created? What was the day, the hour, the season, the month?
The Hindu scholars searched the ancient texts — they could not find it. The Islamic scholars searched the Koran — they could not find it. The yogis did not know it either.
Only the creator who made this creation knows. Only it knows itself.
How can we speak of it? How can we praise it? How can we describe it? How can we even know it?
Nanak says: everyone speaks of it, each one claiming to be wiser than the last. The Great One is truly great. Great is its name. What happens is according to its flow.
One who claims to know everything fully — when they move on, they will not be honored for that claim.
Two big ideas sit side by side: the real pilgrimage is inside you, and no one knows the moment the universe began.
First, the pilgrimage. Holy journeys, hard discipline, kindness and charity are all good. But on their own they earn only a til — a sesame seed, one of the tiniest grains there is. Even that little grain comes from the inner work that goes with them: listening, accepting, and loving with a humble heart. Antargat teerath mal nao — bathe at the holy place deep inside. That is where the real washing happens.
Then comes praise: sat suhaan sadaa man chaao — the One is true, beautiful, and always a joy to the mind. The teaching tradition hears in this an echo of an old Vedic phrase, sat-chit-ananda: what truly is, what is aware, and what is joy. Guru Nanak never claimed to bring a brand-new truth. He pointed at the truth that was always there, using the same three notes the oldest seekers used.
Then the big question: when did creation begin? What hour, what day, what season, what month? The Hindu scholars (pandits) have the Puranas, and they do not know. The Muslim scholars (qazis) have the Koran, and they do not know. The yogis, with all their inner training, do not know. Only the Creator knows.
There is a clever reason the question has no answer. To name the day, month or season when creation began, you would need days, months and seasons — and those are part of creation. There was no sun yet to make a morning, and no moon to mark a month. Time begins with the world, so no one can stand before the beginning holding a clock. Scientists who study the start of the universe run into the same wall: asking what came "before" time began is a question that undoes itself.
The tradition adds that Guru Nanak is not brushing aside the old scriptures here. He is agreeing with their deepest moment. An ancient hymn of creation in the Rig Veda, the Nasadiya Sukta, says almost the same thing: who really knows how it all began? The One breathed, without wind, by its own power. Only the one who watches from the highest heaven knows — or perhaps even it does not know. The oldest text admits the same honest not-knowing, and Guru Nanak stands in that line of humility.
So this is a gentle lesson. Any tradition that has claimed to know everything about the One has said more than anyone can know. The honest answer to the deepest questions is not a loud "I know." It is wonder. A fish can swim the whole sea and still never step outside it to see how big it is.
The last line — jay ko aapou jaanai agai ga-i-aa na sohai — says that whoever claims to know it all will not be honoured when they move on. Knowing something is not the same as knowing everything. A true teacher is often the one who is willing to say, "I don't know."
Is there something you believe confidently about the deepest nature of things — where you came from, what happens after death, why the universe exists — that you've never really questioned? What would it feel like to hold that belief more lightly?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI