Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
How can I forget you? My mother — the True One is here, and its name is true.
The pause shabad (rahao) at the centre of the composition. Guru Nanak addresses the oneness as "my mother" — an intimate, nurturing relationship, not a distant king issuing commands. The mother is the one you cannot forget, the one whose absence you feel in your body.
This is consistent with the philosophy here: the oneness is not a deity sitting in judgment. It is closer than your own breath — as close as the person who gave you life. Forgetting it is not a sin. It is simply a kind of grief, a loss, an absence. And the natural response to absence is the question: how could I possibly forget?
Is there someone in your life whose presence you'd miss so deeply that you cannot imagine forgetting them? What would you say if someone asked you how you could possibly forget them?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI