ਸੁਖਦਾਈ ਪੂਰਨ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਕਰਤਾ ਮੇਰੀ ਬਹੁਤੁ ਇਆਨਪ ਜਰਤ ॥
sukh-daa-ee pooran parabh kartaa mayree bahut i-aanap jarat.
The Giver of peace, God, the Perfect Creator, endures my great ignorance.
ਨਿਰਗੁਨਿ ਕਰੂਪਿ ਕੁਲਹੀਣ ਨਾਨਕ ਹਉ ਅਨਦ ਰੂਪ ਸੁਆਮੀ ਭਰਤ ॥੨॥੩॥
nirgun karoop kulheen naanak ha-o anad roop su-aamee bharat. ||2||3||
I am worthless, ugly and of low birth, O Nanak, but my Husband Lord is the embodiment of bliss. ||2||3||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The Giver of peace, the Perfect Creator, bears with my great not-knowing.
I feel small and low, Nanak says, but my Beloved is joy itself.
However small you feel, you're held by a bliss far larger — the One is patient with your not-knowing, not exasperated by it.
The close is tender: the One "endures my great ignorance" — patient with our failings, not exasperated by them. The speaker's honest sense of his own smallness ("worthless, ugly, of low birth," softened here to feeling small and low) is not the point; the point is the contrast — however low I feel, "my Husband Lord is the embodiment of bliss." Your smallness is real, but it is held by a bliss far larger.
A Question to Sit With
Does it change your self-view to imagine your smallness held by something patient and full of joy?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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