Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who set themselves against the Guru, generation after generation, kept finding no rest — not because grace was refused, but because a heart at war with goodness cannot settle.
Guru Nanak saw it, and so did Guru Angad; the third Guru looked on them with pity and asked, "What lies in the hands of these poor people?"
And the fourth Guru lifted them all — every slanderer, every wrongdoer — and carried them across.
Whoever serves the True Guru finds all their affairs set right.
They receive the good they longed for, and are carried home to the One.
Every treasure is held in the True Guru, who has enshrined the One in the heart.
The one who finds the Perfect True Guru is the one whose forehead carries that blessing.
And I would gladly take the dust of the feet of the Guru's Sikhs who love the One, their true Friend.
Even the people who fought the Gurus hardest were lifted up and carried across in the end.
This Shalok by Guru Ram Das shows mercy in action. It traces four generations of Gurus and how they met the people who opposed them. The early lines are severe. They say such people were cursed, kept from meeting, and refused shelter. There is also a frightening line about the messenger of death.
Then comes the turn. The third Guru looks on them with pity: "What lies in the hands of these poor people?" That line is pure compassion. And then: gur cha-uthee peerhee tikiaa tin nindak dusat sabh taaray. The fourth Guru "saved all these slanderers and wrongdoers."
The verse does not erase the hard lines before it. That is exactly why the mercy stands out so strongly. Rescue reaches even those who fought hardest. Think of a lifeguard who swims out to pull in the very swimmer who was splashing and shouting at her. The mercy is the heart of this verse.
The third Guru asked, "What lies in the hands of these poor people?" How does seeing someone with pity instead of anger change everything?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI