Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
All the long cycles of years, and all the holy places people travel to, are Yours.
Your Name is True, O Highest One.
No one can know Your state, O One who never changes.
We cannot know You, and still we sing Your Name.
You cannot fully understand the One, and you can still sing the Naam.
Anjaanat naam vakhaanee-ai — though You are beyond knowing, still we speak Your Name. Think of a small child who loves the ocean. She cannot measure it or see where it ends. She still runs down to it every morning, calling out to it. Singing the Name is not pretending to understand. It is love that does not wait until it understands.
The verse also says that time and holy places already belong to the One. Tayray sath sambat sabh teerthaa — the long cycles of years, and every teerthaa, every place of pilgrimage, are Yours. So the sacred is not only somewhere far away that you travel to. It is what everything already is.
Is there something you love even though you do not completely understand it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI