Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Naam Dayv, the humble cloth-printer, gave his whole heart to the One.
A man the world counted as worth almost nothing became worth more than millions.
This is the pause line, the Rahao, the center of the shabad. It says the world's price-tags on people are wrong.
Here Guru Arjan, the Fifth Guru, sings about the Bhagats, the devoted saints. He is the Guru who gathered these hymns into the Guru Granth Sahib. He starts with Naam Dayv, a man who printed patterns on cloth for a living.
Gobind gobind gobind sang naamday-o man leenaa — Naam Dayv's mind melted into the One. Gobind is a name for the One. Then: aadh daam ko chheepro ho-i-o laakheenaa — the cloth-printer worth half a shell became worth millions.
In his time, many looked down on Naam Dayv because of his birth and his trade. Caste was a system that ranked families high or low from birth. By that ranking, he was worth almost nothing. Through his love of the One, he became priceless.
And the Guru sings this on purpose. He honored saints the world called "low," and he placed their words in scripture beside his own. That is a strong way of saying all people are equal.
Picture a painting at a yard sale with a sticker that says fifty cents. Then someone learns it is a treasure. The sticker was wrong the whole time. Someone the world values at almost nothing can be worth more than all the millions in the world.
Why is the way the world measures a person's 'worth' so often mistaken?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI