Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
What is that court? What is that home where the oneness sits and cares for all?
Wind sings. Water sings. Fire sings. The keeper of dharma sings at the door. The recording angels of consciousness sing — the ones who know what every heart holds. Shiva, Brahma and the goddess sing, always radiant. Indra sings on his throne. The perfected ones sing in meditation. The holy ones sing in contemplation.
The celibate, the truthful, the contented sing. The courageous warriors sing. The scholars sing, through age after age, alongside the sacred texts. The enchanting ones sing — from the heavens, from the earth, from the deepest realms. The sacred jewels of creation sing. The sacred sites sing. The warriors of great power sing. The four sources of creation sing. The continents, the worlds, the solar systems — created and sustained — sing.
They alone truly sing of you who are pleasing to you — those soaked in your love, savoring your essence.
How many others sing — they don't even come to my mind. Nanak says: what is there left to contemplate?
The Great One is always true. Its name is always true. It is now, and always will be. It will not depart even when the universe it created departs.
It created the world — with all its colors, all its species, all its variety. Having created it, it watches over it. It does whatever it pleases. No one can give it orders.
It is the king of kings. Nanak says: remain within its will.
This is one of the most poetically ambitious pauris in all of Japji — a long, sweeping catalog of everything in creation singing, building to a climax of wonder and then dissolving into humble surrender.
The image of the universe as a cosmic concert is ancient and widespread. Pythagoras described the "music of the spheres." Sufi poets wrote of the soul's song. Hindu tradition speaks of the first sound of creation — Naad. What is distinctive in Guru Nanak's version is the radical inclusivity: the list includes not only the spiritually advanced but the elements, the planets, warriors, scholars, and even the enchanting ones. Everything participates. Nothing is excluded from the song.
The key question — So dar kayhaa so ghar kayhaa — where is that gate, where is that home where you sit and care for all — is also the opening of Sodar Rehras, the evening prayer in Sikh tradition. It is a question that does not expect a geographical answer. It invites you to turn inward: if the oneness sits at the center of all creation, where is the center? The question points you inward, toward the still place at the heart of everything.
The line Say-ee tudhuno gaavahi jo tudh bhaavan ratay tayray bhagat rasaalay — they alone truly sing who are pleasing to you, dyed in your love, savoring your essence — is the most important line in the pauri. Who sings most truly? Not those who perform devotion most loudly, or who have mastered the most sophisticated theology. Those who are ratay — soaked in the dye of devotion. The dye metaphor from Pauri 20 returns: surface washing is not enough. Only what has soaked through changes color permanently.
The teaching tradition offers a personal way into this cosmic image. Picture yourself as a flute — a hollow reed. A flute makes no music of its own; the music is the breath of the player passing through it. All your life, the tradition suggests, you have heard a song coming out of you and assumed you were composing it — my life, my story, my achievement. But two players cannot sound the same flute at once. While you were sure you were the musician, the real musician stayed hidden. To find "that gate, that home" is to grow quiet enough to notice that the song was never yours to begin with. Empty the instrument of me, and let the oneness play.
Guru Nanak ends with the deepest act of Mannai: Nanak rahan rajaa-ee — Nanak remains within the will. Not striving to direct the universe, not claiming to understand it, not commanding it. Simply: remaining within its will.
If your life right now were a song — what kind of song would it be? Is it the song you want to be singing? What would you change?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI