Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Below this world — there are worlds. And below those — more worlds. Above this world — hundreds of thousands of heavenly worlds. And above those — more.
The ancient teachers searched and searched for the end of all this — and grew tired looking. The Vedas say one thing. The scriptures of another tradition say there are eighteen thousand worlds.
But in reality — there is only one source. One root.
If you tried to write it all down, you would wear yourself out before finishing. The account would never be complete.
Call the oneness great, Nanak says. Only the oneness itself truly knows itself.
The universe has no bottom and no top that anyone can reach — so Guru Nanak ends by simply calling the One great.
There are worlds below worlds, and worlds above worlds. The teaching tradition points out a small trick in the first line: the one word lakh, "hundreds of thousands," sits in the middle and counts both ways at once — hundreds of thousands of worlds below, and hundreds of thousands above.
Guru Nanak sets two traditions side by side. In one line are the Vedas, the Hindu scriptures, whose seekers searched for the end of it all and grew tired. In the next are the kateba, the holy books of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim traditions, which speak of 18,000 worlds (sahas athaarah). He does not agree or argue about either count. He says something simpler: asuloo ik dhaat — underneath it all there is one root. All the variety in the world does not come from many rival foundations. It is one foundation showing itself in endless ways.
Laykhaa ho-ay ta likee-ai / laykhai ho-ay vinaas — if there were an account, you could write it; but trying would wear you out before you finished. Like the question of when creation began, this is about humility. The universe cannot be fully understood from inside it. Your eye can see everything in front of you, but it cannot see itself.
The janamsakhis, the old stories of Guru Nanak's life, tell a story about this very verse. Near Baghdad, a local scholar challenged him: the books speak of eighteen thousand worlds and seven heavens — how can you say there are countless? In the story, Guru Nanak does not argue. He opens the eyes of the scholar's young son, who sees galaxy after galaxy and brings back a token from each place. Whatever you make of the miracle, the story keeps the verse's real point: every fixed count of the universe turns out to be too small.
The closing line — naanak vadaa aakhee-ai aapay jaanai aap — says: call it great; it alone knows itself. It lets go of the need to explain and label everything, and puts wonder in its place. You don't need to understand everything. You only need to recognise greatness when you are standing inside it.
When you try to imagine how large the universe truly is — not just the stars you can see, but everything beyond — what happens inside you? Is it overwhelming? Exciting? Peaceful? Why?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI