Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When I let the teaching truly reach me, I found something high and steady inside myself. The one who guides me from darkness to light kept my honor safe, the way a good friend never lets you fall.
This ashtapadee (an eight-verse hymn) by Guru Arjan is built on a single repeated phrase, gur kai bachan — "through the Guru's Word." The opening verse (||1||) sets the theme before the Rahao pause states it plainly: everything good in the singer's life flows from taking the teaching in. Param gat — "the supreme state" — is rendered here as the high, steady place inside, not a rank to win. Paij rakhaaee ("preserved my honor") is the tender note: the teaching does not just instruct, it protects.
Who or what has helped you stand up steady when you might have fallen?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI