Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I am a helpless orphan — I seek your shelter, One; please be kind to me.
Nanak worships the One's lotus feet; without it, there is no other at all.
The similes resolve into the soul's own cry: "I am a helpless orphan." This is the anaath, the one with no protector (as in Devgandhaari's "Master of the masterless") — and the orphan's whole hope is the shelter it seeks. Like the rainbird, the chakvi, the fish, the orphan-soul is bound to its one source: "without Him, there is no other at all." That final phrase — aan na hor — is total: there is no second, no alternative, no backup. Not because other things are forbidden, but because, for a heart that loves like the fish loves water, nothing else could possibly substitute. The whole shabad's images converge on this single-hearted devotion, where the One is not the best option but the only one.
Can you love something so completely that it becomes not just your favorite, but the one thing nothing else could replace?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI