Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When You bless me, I say Your Name — and so I find my place in Your Court.
When it pleases You, the meanness leaves me, and the jewel of wisdom comes to live in my mind.
When You cast Your Glance of Grace, I come to meet the True Guru. Nanak prays: carry us across the terrifying ocean.
The simplest prayer is the truest one: please carry us across.
Every line here leans on the One. When You bless me, I say Your Name. When it pleases You, the meanness leaves. When You look with nadar, Your kind glance, I meet the True Guru. Even meeting the Guru is a gift.
So the shabad ends with one short prayer. Guru Nanak asks the One to carry us across the bhavjal, the scary ocean of the world. Think of a ferry taking people over a wide, rough river. No one could swim it alone. The person who knows their hands are empty just asks to be carried over.
What would you most want to be carried through, if you could only ask for one thing?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI