Pray for Distance From the Corrosive, Nearness to the Good
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I beg this of You, merciful One: don't set me face to face with the corrosively cynical.
Make Nanak the servant of Your servant; let his head rest in the dust of the feet of the good.
The close turns the counsel into a prayer — and it is telling that the devotee asks for protection from bad company as earnestly as for anything: "don't bring me face to face with the faithless cynics." And in the same breath he asks for the opposite: the lowest place "in the dust under the feet of the Holy." Away from the corrosive, toward the good — the two movements of a heart that knows how much company shapes it.
If company shapes you this much, what would you pray to be kept from — and drawn toward?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI