Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Every other treasure turns bitter in the end; only the True Name stays sweet.
Those who have tasted it, the One's own people, know its flavor for themselves.
It comes to live in the heart that is ready for it, and there the One shines, alone and complete, so the pull of feeling separate is undone.
Nanak says: with hands pressed together I ask for the Name — and, pleased, the One gives it freely.
Sabhay vastoo ka-urhee-aa, sachay naa-o mithaa — "all things are bitter; the True Name alone is sweet." You know this the way you know a taste: chakh saadhee dithaa, "the holy ones tasted and saw." You cannot be argued into it; you have to try it. Then a quiet teaching about what is real: ik niranjan rav rahi-aa — the One, niranjan ("unstained"), fills everything, and bhaa-o duyaa kuthaa, the love of two-ness — the feeling of being cut off and separate, what Gurbani calls haumai — is kuthaa, "cut down." The close is the posture of grace: jorh kar mangai, asking with joined palms, and prabh dayvai tuthaa, the One, "pleased," gives. Received, never seized.
Can you think of something that seemed sweet at first but turned bitter? What has stayed good for you over time?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI