Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I beg this one thing of you, kind One, ocean of mercy — please don't set me face to face with the faithless cynic.
Make servant Nanak the servant of your servants; let his head rest in the dust at the feet of the good.
The shabad ends as a prayer, and notice its two halves: "keep me away from corrosive company" and "place me in good company" ("the slave of Your slaves... dust under the feet of the Holy"). These are the same request from both sides — protect me from what drags me down, and surround me with what lifts me up. It is a deeply practical prayer about environment, and it is humble: Guru Arjan does not claim to be strong enough to resist bad influence by sheer character; he asks to be kept from it. There is wisdom in knowing your own susceptibility and arranging your life — and your prayers — around it. The final image is the raag's recurring humility: the head laid low in the dust of the good, which is exactly where the raag keeps finding its peace.
What would it look like to arrange your life — the people, the places — so that good influences are close and harmful ones are far?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI