Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
This is the dharma of the realm of dharma — right action, right living, honest life. And now, let us speak of the realm of wisdom — the higher realm of knowing.
So many winds, waters and fires across all creation. So many forms of the divine — so many Krishnas and Shivas. So many Brahmas fashioning form after form, beauty upon beauty.
So many worlds where karma is worked out. So many lessons to be learned in so many places. So many moons and suns, so many solar systems and lands.
So many perfected ones and Buddhas, so many yogic masters. So many goddesses of every kind. So many demi-gods and demons, so many silent sages. So many oceans of precious jewels.
So many ways of life, so many languages, so many dynasties of rulers. So many who live with intuitive awareness, so many humble servants.
Nanak says: no end. No end.
Guru Nanak names the first two inner "realms" — and then shows how many worlds, gods and ways of life there are, with no end in sight.
Japji describes five khands — realms, or stages, of the inner journey. They are not places on a map. They are ways of being awake, and each one opens as haumai (the feeling of being a separate self) grows thinner. The journey leads toward Sach Khand, the realm of truth.
The pauri before this one described Dharam Khand, the realm of right living, with the earth as a school where our actions are recorded. Here that realm is summed up, and the next one is named: Giaan Khand, the realm of wisdom. The pauris that follow walk further inward, one realm at a time.
The teaching tradition adds a warning. The khands are not levels to collect or boast about. Gurbani hardly uses these names anywhere else. They describe stages of waking up, not trophies to chase. The moment you catch yourself thinking "I have reached this level," the ego has just found a holier thing to own. The goal was never to climb a ladder. It is to live in praise. The map is here only so you can recognise the ground when you walk on it.
Giaan Khand is usually called "the realm of wisdom," but the tradition says this is not textbook knowledge. It is an awakening. The self-centred lens drops away and you see the world as if for the first time — the way a small child is truly amazed by a feather or a pebble. The endless "so many"s of this pauri are that amazement written down. Wisdom here means wonder, not information.
Kaytay means "so many." So many winds and waters and fires. So many Krishnas, so many Shivas, so many Brahmas. So many suns and moons and lands. It echoes the asankh, "countless," of Pauris 17 to 19. The point is the same: the world is far bigger and more varied than any one tradition's map of the universe. No tradition owns the divine. The One shows itself in endless forms, across endless worlds and ages.
The closing line is naanak ant na ant — no end, no end. Those words have come back again and again in Japji. Here they are a doorway. Having shown the endless variety of everything, Guru Nanak is about to take us deeper, into the realms of grace and truth at the heart of it all.
When you encounter a religious tradition or a way of life very different from your own — do you feel curious, or threatened, or something else? What does your reaction tell you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI