ਕਰਿ ਕਿਰਪਾ ਅਪੁਨਾ ਦਾਸੁ ਕੀਨੋ ਬੰਧਨ ਤੋਰਿ ਨਿਰਾਰੇ ॥
kar kirpaa apunaa daas keeno banDhan tor niraaray.
Showing His Mercy, the Lord has made me His slave; breaking my bonds, He has saved me.
ਜਪਿ ਜਪਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਜੀਵਾ ਤੇਰੀ ਬਾਣੀ ਨਾਨਕ ਦਾਸ ਬਲਿਹਾਰੇ ॥੨॥੧੮॥ ਛਕੇ ੩ ॥
jap jap naam jeevaa tayree banee naanak daas balihaaray. ||2||18|| chhakay 3.
I live by chanting and meditating on the Naam, and the Bani of Your Word; slave Nanak is a sacrifice to You. ||2||18|| Chhakay 3.
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
By mercy the One made me its own and, breaking my chains, saved me.
I live by saying the Name and the Word; Nanak is a sacrifice to You.
When the good becomes your life-source rather than a duty, you don't practice it — you live by it.
The close, ending the third Chhakay (set of six), credits everything to mercy — chains broken, the person saved — and reports that he now "lives" by the Name. Remembrance has become his life-source, not a duty. Grace did the breaking; the Name became the breath.
A Question to Sit With
What good has become something you 'live by' rather than something you make yourself do?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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