Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One is merciful and endless. The one and only fills everything.
It itself is all-in-all. Who else is there even to speak of?
The One itself gives the gifts, and itself receives them.
All coming and going happens by your Will; your place is steady and unchanging.
Nanak begs for this one gift: by your grace, One, please give me your Name.
The Vaar closes as it opened — on the all-pervading One — but now the pervasion is complete and intimate. "He Himself is all-in-all. Who else can we speak of?" There is no second anywhere; the One gives the gifts and receives them, is the worshipper and the worshipped, the whole play and the only player (the aapay vision, as in Shabad 10). "Coming and going" — all of life's flux, birth and death and change — happens "by Your Will" (Hukam), while "Your place is steady and unchanging": the still center around which everything turns. And the final word of this great composition is the humblest possible request, the same one the whole raag has been making: "please grant me Your Name." After 60 verses of vastness, rescue, and praise, the seeker asks for the one thing — the Name — that contains all the rest. It is the perfect close: the infinite One, asked, by grace, for the gift of itself.
After everything, the whole poem ends with a single humble request: for the one gift that contains all the rest. If you could ask for only one thing that held everything good, what would it be?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI