Seek Sincerely and the Ocean Is Crossed in an Instant
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
**Kh** — whoever truly seeks the One, and by seeking finds, comes to rest — no more endless spinning through coming and going. The search well made brings you home for good.
When someone seeks, and then really stops to understand and reflect on what they've found, something remarkable happens: the vast, churning ocean of the world — with all its ups and downs and swirling troubles — is crossed in an instant. What looked impossibly wide is passed in the blink of an eye, once you see clearly.
If you truly search for the One, and stop to understand what you find, you cross life's wide ocean in a moment.
This verse belongs to the letter Khakha, and to khoj, which means search. Khakhaa khoj parai ja-o ko-ee — if anyone takes up the search. Jo khojai so bahur na ho-ee — the one who seeks and finds is not born again. The long round of coming and going comes to rest. They are home for good.
Khoj boojh ja-o karai beechaaraa — when someone searches, understands (boojh), and thinks it through (beechaaraa). Ta-o bhavjal tarat na laavai baaraa — then they cross the bhavjal without a moment's delay. Bhavjal is the world-ocean. Gurbani often uses it as a picture of life's big, churning ups and downs, wide and hard to cross.
Think of a maze that seems to go on forever. From above, you can see the way out at once. Clear seeing works like that.
So honest searching, joined to real understanding, does more than help you cope with life's hard parts. It carries you right through them.
Has a problem that felt huge and impossible ever suddenly become easy once you really understood it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI