Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Great is the greatness of the one the Guru lifts up and honors.
The whole world comes and bows before them, and their good name spreads everywhere.
Even the galaxies and endless worlds bow in reverence to the one on whose head the Perfect Guru has laid a hand — and so they become whole.
The greatness of the Guru grows day by day; no one can match it.
Nanak says: the Creator itself has established them, and the One keeps their honor.
A Shalok of the Fourth Mehl praising the person the Guru has raised up and completed. The sweeping image — khand barahmand namaskaar karahi — "galaxies and solar systems bow" — is not a claim about literal astronomy but a way of saying that when a life becomes fully aligned with the One, all of creation is, in a sense, on its side; the whole cosmos leans the same direction it leans. The key phrase is jis kai mastak hath Dhari-aa gur poorai so pooraa ho-ee — the one on whose head the "hand" is placed "becomes complete." Completeness here is not self-made; it is received. The honor that follows is something given — and, by the One's own promise, kept.
What's the difference between honor you grab for yourself and honor that comes to you because of how you live?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI