Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Everything belongs to You; You are the maker of it all. There is no edge to You, no far shore, no end.
So here is the one gift I ask for: that the Name — the living presence of the One, held close in my mind — may never slip away from me.
Everything belongs to the One, so the prayer asks for just one gift: never to forget the Name.
This closing verse ties the whole song together. We have watched the self grab at things that pass. Now it asks for the one thing worth holding. Kabhoo na visrai naanak naam — may Nanak never forget the Naam. Naam, the Name, is not a magic word. It means keeping the One present in your mind. It is like keeping someone you love in your thoughts while they are far away.
Earlier the song spoke of what binas jaa-ay, what passes away. Against all of that, this is the one grip that holds.
Even so, it is not grabbed. It is asked for as daan, a gift. It comes through grace, not by squeezing harder.
What is one thing you'd never want to forget, no matter how busy life gets?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI