Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I wake in the early quiet, and a holy Guest arrives at my home.
I wash that Guest's feet with care, for this Guest is dear to my heart and my whole being, every single day.
I hear the Name, I gather the Name in like treasure, and I let my attention rest lovingly on the Name.
When I sing the praises of the One, my home and everything in it becomes clean and blessed.
The one who trades in the Name — who makes it their real business in life — finds it through great good fortune.
The Shalok imagines the divine arriving as a paraahunaa — an honored houseguest. In a culture where welcoming a guest was sacred, this is a tender picture: you rise early, you wash the traveler's feet, you make everything ready. But the "Guest" here is the Name, the living presence of the One, and the "home" is the heart. Washing the feet is not servitude — it is love made into action. The last line uses the language of trade: har naam vaapaaree — the one whose true livelihood, whose deepest investment, is the Name. To a child growing up around talk of jobs and money, this quietly says: what you truly "deal in," day to day, is your inner attention.
If something precious were coming to visit your home, how would you get ready? What would it look like to "get ready" for it on the inside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI