Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Save me, however you can; One, I am yours.
My faults are countless — how could I even count them?
The wrongs I have done are beyond number; day by day I keep slipping.
I am drunk on attachment to illusion, the deceiver; only by your grace can I be saved.
Secretly I do things I shouldn't, though the One is the nearest of the near.
Nanak prays: shower your mercy, One, and lift me out of the whirlpool of the frightening ocean.
The first Chhant verse is an honest confession, and it turns on one piercing line: "secretly I commit hideous sins, even though God is the nearest of the near." There is the whole human predicament — we hide our failings as if no one sees, forgetting that the One is closer than close, present in the very heart where the hiding happens. There is no secret from what is nearer than your own breath. But note the tone: this is not despair but a plea for mercy — "only by Your Grace can I be saved... lift me out of the whirlpool." The confession, however heavy, flows straight into trust. He does not hide the faults; he brings them, all of them uncounted, to the One who was never fooled anyway.
Is there really any hiding from something closer to you than your own breath? What happens when you stop hiding and simply ask for help?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI