Sikhism·Raag Goojaree·Shabad 26
Verse 2 of 3

Define the Infinite and It's Already Elsewhere

ਪ੍ਰਭ ਕੀ ਅਗਮ ਅਗਾਧਿ ਕਥਾ ॥
parabh kee agam agaaDh kathaa.
God's sermon is profound and unfathomable.
ਸੁਨੀਐ ਅਵਰ ਅਵਰ ਬਿਧਿ ਬੁਝੀਐ ਬਕਨ ਕਥਨ ਰਹਤਾ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
sunee-ai avar avar biDh bujhee-ai bakan kathan rahtaa. ||1|| rahaa-o.
He is heard to be one thing, but He is understood to be something else again; He is beyond description and explanation. ||1||Pause||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

The One's sermon runs deep, past the reach of any measuring.

You hear it to be one thing, and understand it to be another; it slips past every description.

The moment you think you've defined the infinite, it's already elsewhere — words point, but they never pin it down.
The deeper layer

The Pause line captures a genuine mystical difficulty: the One is "heard to be one thing, but understood to be something else again." Words point but never pin it down — the moment you think you've defined it, the reality is already elsewhere, "beyond description and explanation." This is not evasion; it is honesty about a reality too alive to be caught in a fixed statement. The teaching keeps its mystery not to frustrate us but because a living infinite cannot be a finished sentence.

A Question to Sit With

Have you ever known something so real you couldn't quite put it into words? What was that like?

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI

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