Every Net Has One Exit: the Sanctuary of the Name

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This one closes the hymn with the one way out of every net: the safe shelter of the Name.

Naanak raam naam sarnaa-ee — "Nanak takes shelter in the Name." Satgur raakhay banDh na paa-ee — whoever the True Guru protects is not caught in the tangle.

The hymn ends where it began, like a circle closing. Seven verses spread the net over every kind of life. The exit is the same single door from the first verse: the Name as shelter, and the Guru as rescuer.

This is Aasaa's kind of hope. We do not untangle ourselves one knot at a time. The hymn has just shown that everyone is tangled. But there is a hand that lifts the whole net at once. A stone does not learn to float. It is carried across.