Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Remember, O my mind, the One — call it Raam, Narayan, Govind, Madho. Whatever name you use, you are turning toward the same One.
Hold that One close, and the knots of fear and sorrow come untied.
The One lifts away sorrow, shelters the humble, and is worth loving with your whole heart. Even a single moment of remembering steadies you when the way ahead feels hard and frightening.
The One clears away what weighs on us and makes the heart clean again; so remember, day and night. Please be kind to me, cherisher of the world — by whatever name I call You.
Guru Arjan gathers many names for the One into a single song of love.
The chhant, the song of praise, begins with a string of names: Raam, Naraa-in, Govind, Maadho, Muraar, Mukand. All come from India's wider family of devotion. All point to the one Reality. Guru Arjan brings them into this Sikh hymn as one devotion, not as rival gods. Think of a grandmother who is "Nani" to one child, "Grandma" to another, and "Mum" to her own daughter. She is still one person.
The verse also uses two hard pictures. Jam panth is the hard road at the end of life, and agan saagar is an ocean of fire. They stand for the hardest, most frightening stretches of the way. The comfort is that even a nimakh, one blink of remembering, carries you across.
Kalimalah dahtaa suDh kartaa — the One burns away stains and makes us clean. It is a picture of a fresh start, not a threat.
Have you noticed how different people, in different languages, might use different words for the very same thing?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI