Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Long before anything existed, the One simply was — alone, needing no advice from anyone.
There was no one else to give or take anything, because the One hadn't made another like itself.
Then the One shaped the whole world and poured blessings over all of it.
The One is both formless and formed — beyond shape, yet showing up in every shape.
This Pauree reaches back to before creation: "when the Creator, sitting all alone, created the Universe, He did not consult anyone." The image of the One utterly alone before there was anything else is a favorite Gurbani meditation (compare Sukhmani's "when there was only the One"). It carries a humbling truth: existence is a pure gift, unearned — "after fashioning the world, He blessed all with His blessings." And the closing paradox is central to Sikh theology: aapay nirankaar... aapay saakaar — the One is both formless (Nirankar) and formed, beyond all shape yet present in every shape. For a child: everything that exists is a gift from something that was there before anything, and needs nothing.
What does it feel like to think that the whole world — and you — began as a gift?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI