Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In a single moment the One sets things up and takes them down; its worth is past all telling.
It can turn a king into a beggar in an instant, and pour splendor into someone the world called low.
The shabad opens on the One's power to overturn all human rankings "in an instant" — king to beggar, the lowly filled with splendor. This is not cruelty but a leveling truth: the positions we take so seriously are held loosely by the One, who can rearrange them at will. It humbles the proud and lifts the despairing in the same breath. No status is as fixed as it feels, which is both a warning against arrogance and a comfort to anyone counted out.
Does it steady you or unsettle you that no position is permanent? Which do you need to hear today?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI