Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The world can feel like a wide, rough sea, tossing and pulling — how could anyone get across? Here is how: make the Name your boat, and let the true word be the one who steers.
With the word at the helm, the One carries you over. That is the way across the deep.
When you live turned toward the teaching, love wells up, and you become free — awake and alive, but no longer ruled by fear and grasping.
In a single moment, holding the Name can wipe a slate clean and leave you feeling fresh. This is the crossing — like dull, rusted metal turning bright as gold.
This one says the Name is a boat that can carry you across the rough sea of life.
Here the world is a sea stirred up by maa-i-aa. Maya means the pull of things that shine and then pass away. The sea is dutar, hard to cross. So Guru Amar Das gives a boat. Raam naam kar bohithaa — make the Name your bohithaa, your boat. Sabad khayvat vich paa-ay — and put the sabad, the Guru's word, in it as the khayvat, the boatman. Then the One does the ferrying. Think of a small ferry crossing a stormy bay, with a calm, skilled captain at the wheel.
Jeevti-aa i-o maree-ai — this is how one dies while still alive. It sounds strange, but it is not grim. It means the ego goes quiet while you are fully awake and alive. The self-importance melts, so the real self can live.
Khin meh raam naam kilvikh kaatay — in a moment, the Name cuts away mistakes. Kilvikh means wrongdoing. This is a fresh start, not a punishment. And the close: kanchan bha-ay manooraa — rusty scrap iron becomes gold. Kanchan is gold. Nothing is too dull or spoiled to be changed.
When something feels too big to get through, what is the "boat" that helps carry you across?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI