Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I offer my prayer to my true teacher.
The One who ends distress has become kind and merciful, and all my worry is over.
I am full of faults — hypocritical, greedy — and still it bears with all my merits and demerits.
Laying its hand on my forehead, it lifted me up. The wicked things that wanted to destroy me have been killed.
This verse holds together two things we usually keep apart: a completely honest inventory of one's faults ("hypocritical, greedy") and a total confidence of being loved anyway. The One "puts up with all my merits and demerits" — both columns of the ledger, held with the same patience. Then the parent-gesture again: "placing its hand on my forehead" — the blessing touch, the way you'd steady and reassure a child. And "the wicked ones who wanted to destroy me have been killed" is best read inwardly: the destructive forces were the passions and self-hatreds that would have wrecked him from within, and grace disarmed them. You are held not because you're faultless, but despite your faults, by a hand laid gently on your head.
Can you admit your faults honestly without feeling unlovable? What makes that possible?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI