Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
My foolish mind still hasn't changed its ways, though I've grown tired of instructing it again and again.
But Nanak — one crosses the frightening ocean by singing the songs of the One.
The raag ends by circling back to where the Mehl 9 shabads began: the stubborn mind that "has not yet reformed itself," the tiredness of instructing it over and over (Shabad 45). Guru Tegh Bahadur does not pretend to have finished the work — he ends still wrestling with his own mind, which is a profound honesty to close on. And yet the very last word is not the struggle but the answer, the same answer the whole raag has sung from its first shabad: "one crosses the terrifying ocean by singing the Songs of God." The difficulty is real and ongoing; the remedy is real and available. You do not have to have conquered your mind to be carried across — you only have to keep singing. The raag closes not on triumph but on faithful practice: keep turning toward the One, and you will be ferried over, unfinished as you are.
Is it comforting that you don't have to be finished or perfect to be carried across — you just have to keep turning, again and again, toward what's good?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI