Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I bring a pot of water to bathe the One in worship —
but wait: the water is already full of countless living beings. How can I use it for the One?
There is nothing you can offer the One that the One is not already inside.
Naam Dayv tells a sweet, puzzling story. He wants to honor the One with gifts. First he fills a pot with water to bathe the One, a common way of worship in his time.
Then he stops. Ba-i-aalees lakh jee jal meh hotay — the water is already full of millions of tiny living things. Beethal bhailaa kaa-ay kara-o — so how can I offer it, O Beethal? Beethal is Naam Dayv's loving name for the One.
The water is already full of life. That means it is already full of the One. That is the gentle joke and the deep point. It is like trying to give the ocean a cup of water. Whatever you bring, the One is already in it. What a happy puzzle: the One was in the water before you ever carried it.
If the One is already inside everything, what could you possibly 'give' it that it doesn't already have?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI