Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
One mother — the creative power of the oneness — gave birth to three. One who creates the world. One who sustains it. One who dissolves it.
As the oneness wills, so they are directed. As is its command, so they move and act.
The oneness sees them — but they cannot see it. How wondrous this is.
I bow to the oneness, I bow. Primal. Pure light. Without beginning, without end. Through all the ages — ever the same.
Even the three great gods of Hindu tradition are students of one Mother — and they cannot see the One who guides them.
The three are Brahma, who creates; Vishnu, who keeps things going; and Shiva, who brings things to an end. Guru Nanak does not dismiss them. He puts them in their place. They are real and important forces in the universe, but they are chaylay — students — of the one Mother. Their work is given to them by a source deeper than themselves.
The "one Mother" (aykaa maa-ee) is a rare time Japji uses a mother's image for the One. Sikh teaching is careful not to make the One male or female; the Mool Mantar places it beyond all that. But when Gurbani does use pictures, both father and mother appear. Here the One's power to create is named as a mother, the one who gives birth to the forces that shape the world.
The teaching tradition reads maa-ee more closely as maya. Maya does not mean the world is unreal — the sun and stars are really there. It means the mistake of thinking that this ever-changing, temporary world is the whole, permanent truth. And the "three" she gives birth to are read two more ways. They are the three strands (gunas) that old Indian thought saw woven through everything. And, more simply, they are the three pieces we cut every experience into: a me, a you, and what happens between us. That is why the pauris around this one keep pointing past the three to a "fourth state" (turiya), where the separate me melts and only the One remains. You can watch the three-part world without being ruled by it. That freedom is part of the wonder Guru Nanak marvels at.
Then the heart of it: oh vaykhai onaa nadar na aavai — the One sees them, but they cannot see the One. Even the greatest powers in the universe work inside the One without being able to take it all in. They are like the letters on a page, which cannot read the book they belong to.
This is true for every person too. We all live inside something bigger than we can see. And Guru Nanak names the right response straight away: bahutaa ayhu vidaan — how wonderful this is! Not despair. Not frustration. Wonder. That even Brahma cannot fully see the One is not a failure. It shows how deep the One goes. Stay inside it and let it lead. This is Mannai, acceptance, built into the way the world works.
Have you ever been part of something larger than yourself — a family, a team, a community — where you could only see your small part, but sensed the whole was much greater? What was that like?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI