Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Blessed is the life of the person who keeps the Name close and speaks it with love. Their coming into the world is welcomed and true.
I would give anything to be near the one who sings to the One who is peace itself, calm and free.
When they meet the wise and all-knowing One, the ache of birth and death melts away, and they are at rest.
Sitting among people who love the truth, they cross the wide ocean of this world; their strength is the True One, and that strength never fails.
This is the opening Shalok of the whole Vaar — the tune-note that sets the key. A Vaar is a long ballad of praise, sung step by step; this one is sung to the melody of an old heroic song, the Vaar of Raa-i Kamaaldee-Mojadee. The Shalok names the hero of the entire poem: not a warrior, but the person whose life is shaped by the Name. So aa-i-aa parvaan — "their arrival is approved" — reframes a whole human life as something welcomed by existence itself. Nirbaan (nirvaanaa) here means the state that is beyond disturbance — peace with no ripple. The closing image, crossing the saagar (ocean) in the company of the Saints, will echo through every step of the Vaar: you don't cross alone.
What does it mean to you that your very arrival in the world could be something "welcomed"? Who are the people whose company makes you braver?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI