The One You'd Search the World For Is Right Beside You
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
**Ny** — the One is near, closer than close, living deep inside your own heart. So why leave it and go searching far away?
I chased all over the whole wide world looking for it. I looked everywhere out there. And in the end I found it right beside me — nearer than anything I'd been running toward.
The letter Nyanya carries one of Kabir's most quoted insights, a couplet of pure homecoming. Nikat jo ghat rahi-o — the One dwells near, within the heart (ghat) — so door kahaa taj jaa-ay, why abandon it for the distance? The second line is autobiographical and universal at once: jaa kaaran jag dhoodhi-a-o — “the One I searched the whole world for” — nayra-o paa-i-a-o taahi, “I found near myself.” The seeking wasn't wasted; it's often how we finally turn around and see what was always beside us. Compare the mirror of Gurbani: the treasure isn't over the horizon; it's under your own roof.
Have you ever looked everywhere for something and found it was near you the whole time?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI