Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One can lift a lost and troubled heart into something bright and good — that is the Maker's own doing.
The One protects and steadies all who follow the teaching and sets their affairs right.
Ill-will, aimed at a peaceful heart, finds nothing to grab and simply falls back on itself.
The One I sing of is great beyond measure — the One who shapes and makes beautiful with their own hand.
Parayt-ahu kee-ton dayvta — literally "the One turned a ghost/lost-spirit into a deva, a bright being." Read here as transformation and hope: no heart is too lost to be lifted. Sabhay sikh ubaari-an — the One "saves all the students" and savaaray, "sets their affairs in order." The third line names nindak, the slanderer, and here the source reaches for severe court-and-punishment imagery: they are "seized and thrown down, declared false in the court." That wording is the verse's own and stands. Alongside it — for younger readers, and as application rather than as the line's literal sense — this project offers its standing reading of ill-will: bitterness aimed at a peaceful (nirvair) heart finds nothing to catch on, so it corrodes the one who carries it, like a stone thrown at a wall that bounces back. The close is pure praise: the One is vadaa, "great," who aap saaj savaaray, "shapes and beautifies" with their own hand.
Have you ever seen someone's meanness backfire on them without anyone fighting back? Why do you think that happens?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI