Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
My One is the Master of those who have no master.
I have come to the shelter of the Saving One.
Protect me on every side, O One;
protect me in what's coming, in what's past, and at the very last moment.
"Master of the masterless" (anaath ko naath) is one of the tenderest names for the One in all of Gurbani. It means: the One belongs especially to those who belong to no one — the orphaned, the unprotected, the ones with no powerful patron to shield them. If you have no one, you have this One, who is precisely the protector of the ones without protectors (echoing Aasaa Shabad 253, "one who has no one — God belongs to him"). And the prayer asks for protection across all of time — future, past, and "the very last moment" (death). To be covered on every side and through every moment is the deep security the raag keeps offering: you are held, front and back, beginning to end.
How does it feel to know that the ones with no one are exactly the ones this One belongs to?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI