Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Dear One — I am not high, not low, not in-between. I am the One's servant, and I seek the One's shelter.
Dyed in the Name, I've grown light toward the world; I've forgotten sorrow, separation, and sickness.
The Ashtapadee opens with a quiet demolition of the whole ladder of status: "I am not high or low or in the middle." The speaker steps out of the ranking game entirely — the only identity claimed is "the Lord's slave." And from that one belonging flows a great lightness: dyed in the Name, he has "forgotten sorrow, separation and disease." When you stop measuring yourself against others' rungs, an enormous weight lifts; belonging to the One replaces the exhausting work of placing yourself on the ladder.
How much energy do you spend measuring where you rank? What would it feel like to simply step off the ladder?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI