Your humble servant, O Lord, is intoxicated with Your sublime essence.
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Sitting, he says the Name; sleeping, he says the Name; the Name is the food he lives on.
Bathing in the dust of the good is worth as much as washing at all sixty-eight sacred rivers.
This one says: the humblest things are the most precious.
baiThat har har sovat har har — sitting, he says the Name; sleeping, he says the Name. The Name is even the food he eats. Remembering the One fills every part of his day. This steady remembering is called simran, and this raag praises it again and again.
Then comes a surprise. Bathing in the dust at the feet of good people is worth as much as bathing at aThasaTh teerath, the sixty-eight famous holy places.
Guru Arjan does this often. He takes the biggest, grandest things people value in religion: long pilgrimages, great ceremonies, lots of learning. Then he shows that the humblest inner things count for more: the Name on your tongue, time spent near good people. Think of a homemade card that means more than an expensive gift. What matters most needs no money, no travel and no status. Anyone can have it.
Why might a small, humble, daily practice be worth more than one big impressive event?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI