Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
By grace I find the path at all. By grace I can hold the One in mind.
By grace the knots that bind me loosen. And by grace the tight grip of "me, me, me" — the ego that keeps me feeling separate — finally softens and lets go.
Everything good on the spiritual path comes to us as grace, not as something we did ourselves.
Four lines, and each one begins the same way. Ta-o kirpaa tay maarag paa-ee-ai — by Your grace, we find the maarag, the path. Kirpaa means grace, a kindness freely given. By grace we meditate on the Name. By grace we are freed from bandhan, the knots that tie us. Ta-o kirpaa tay ha-umai tutai — by Your grace, haumai is broken. Haumai is the ego, the feeling of being a separate self.
Every good thing is credited to grace, not to effort. This is Gurprasad, the Guru's grace, built right into the shape of the song. The whole shabad will not let the self take the credit. Think of a kite. It flies high, but the wind is doing the lifting.
What's something you're proud of that actually depended on help you didn't control?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI