Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Child, this is your mother's hope and prayer for you.
May you never let the One slip from your heart, not even for a moment.
May your whole life hum with the One, the Lord of all the world.
This is a mother's blessing for her child.
This is the Rahao, the "pause" line, the center of the shabad. Pootaa maataa kee aasees — child, this is your mother's blessing. It is not an order. It is a loving wish. Nimakh na bisara-o — may you never forget the One, not even for the blink of an eye.
A parent could wish many things for a child. Safety, good grades, a nice job, comfort. Here the mother picks just one wish. She wishes that her child never loses touch with the One. That wish sits underneath all the others. It is like a parent at bedtime who says, "Whatever happens, remember you are loved." The whole life of devotion is set in the warmest light here: being wished well by love itself.
If you distilled every good wish for someone you love into one, what would that single wish be?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI