ਸਲੋਕ ਮਃ ੧ ॥
salok mehlaa 1.
Shalok, First Mehl:
ਕੋਈ ਵਾਹੇ ਕੋ ਲੁਣੈ ਕੋ ਪਾਏ ਖਲਿਹਾਨਿ ॥
ko-ee vaahay ko lunai ko paa-ay khalihaan.
One plants the seed, another harvests the crop, and still another beats the grain from the chaff.
ਨਾਨਕ ਏਵ ਨ ਜਾਪਈ ਕੋਈ ਖਾਇ ਨਿਦਾਨਿ ॥੧॥
naanak ayv na jaap-ee ko-ee khaa-ay nidaan. ||1||
O Nanak, it is not known, who will ultimately eat the grain. ||1||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
One person plants the seed, another gathers the crop, and still another separates the grain.
Nanak says: who will finally eat it? That part is not for us to know.
You plant seeds without always knowing who will one day eat the fruit.
A rare Guru Nanak shalok (Mehl 1) -- the Vaar borrows the First Guru's voice here. It is a small riddle about how tangled and shared all effort is: ko-ee vaahay, ko lunai, ko paa-ay khalihaan -- one sows, one reaps, one threshes, and ko-ee khaa-ay nidaan, someone (unknown) eats in the end. A gentle teaching in humility: we rarely see the whole chain of our work, and outcomes are held in something larger than us.
A Question to Sit With
Can you think of good work someone did long ago that you get to enjoy today?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
Use ← → to navigate