Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I have come to your shelter, ender of the innocent's suffering; I keep my attention fixed on you.
Bless me with fearlessness and remembrance, One; Nanak says, the One is the Breaker of bonds.
The prayer names two specific gifts to ask for: "fearlessness" (abhai) and "meditative remembrance" (simran). These two go together — remembrance of the One produces fearlessness, because the one who keeps the One in mind has an anchor no threat can reach. And the One is named "the Breaker of bonds" — the one who snaps the ropes of illusion and fear that the garden-watering of the previous verse began to loosen. Guru Arjan ends where the raag keeps ending: the bonds broken not by the seeker's struggle but by the One who breaks them, leaving the soul both free and unafraid. Fearlessness is not the absence of danger but the presence of an unbreakable hold.
How might keeping something steady and good in mind make you braver? Where does real fearlessness come from?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI