Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You can say a holy word over and over and still miss the One behind it.
The One is too vast to be bought or measured or grabbed at.
But through good, true wisdom, the mystery gently opens, and the One comes to live in you.
The endless One blends into a ready heart — and stays.
A subtle and important Shalok: "the entire world roams chanting 'Raam, Raam,' but the Lord cannot be obtained like this." This is not a criticism of chanting the Name (which Sikhism deeply values — naam simran); it's a caution against mechanical repetition with the heart absent. The One is "inaccessible, unweighable, cannot be purchased at any price" — you can't grab the infinite by rote. What works is understanding through the Shabad: "through the Guru's Word, His mystery is known, and He comes to dwell in the mind." The difference is presence and understanding, not the words themselves. The beautiful close: "He Himself comes to blend, and having blended, remains blended" — once truly received, the One stays. (Handled carefully per the voice rule never to frame recitation negatively: the issue is absent-minded repetition, never the practice of remembrance itself.)
What's the difference between saying something out of habit and really meaning it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI