Sikhism·Raag Bilaaval·Shabad 4
Verse 4 of 5

The Unspeakable Is Spoken When Ego Melts

ਅਕਥ ਕਥਾ ਕਹੀਐ ਗੁਰ ਭਾਇ ॥
akath kathaa kahee-ai gur bhaa-ay.
The Unspoken Speech is spoken, by the Will of the Guru.
ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਅਗਮ ਅਗੋਚਰੁ ਦੇਇ ਦਿਖਾਇ ॥
parabh agam agochar day-ay dikhaa-ay.
He shows us that God is unapproachable and unfathomable.
ਬਿਨੁ ਗੁਰ ਕਰਣੀ ਕਿਆ ਕਾਰ ਕਮਾਇ ॥
bin gur karnee ki-aa kaar kamaa-ay.
Without the Guru, what lifestyle could we practice, and what work could we do?
ਹਉਮੈ ਮੇਟਿ ਚਲੈ ਗੁਰ ਸਬਦਿ ਸਮਾਇ ॥੩॥
ha-umai mayt chalai gur sabad samaa-ay. ||3||
Eradicating egotism, and walking in harmony with the Guru's Will, I am absorbed in the Word of the Shabad. ||3||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

Some things are too big for words — and yet, carried by the Guru's love, even the unspeakable gets spoken. What no eye can reach and no mind can measure, the Guru somehow shows you.

Without that guidance, what would my doing even amount to? But when the feeling of being a separate, self-important 'me' melts away, I walk in step with the One and dissolve into the Word.

What is too big for words opens up only when the small, separate self melts away.
The deeper layer

Akath kathaa — the story that cannot be told — points at the One who is agam agochar (beyond reach, beyond grasp). The verse's engine is ha-umai mayt: it is the melting of ego, not clever effort, that lets the untellable be known.

A Question to Sit With

When has letting go of needing to look important made room for something bigger?

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI

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