Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Of all the things I love, only the One truly travels with me all the way.
That One is the shelter for the gentle and the caring, the friend of anyone who feels friendless.
The people I love, the things I own, the treats I enjoy — they are gifts for now, but they cannot come with me when it is time to move on.
What I can carry is the Name. Singing it, like a treasure tucked in my heart, I am carried safely across even the widest ocean.
Har bin ko-ay na chaalas saath — nothing accompanies us all the way but the One. Deenaa naath, anaathaa kay naath — master of the meek, friend of the friendless. The literal names the path of Death; for children this is softened to the time to move on, keeping the teaching that possessions and pleasures are for now, without any dread. Naam nidhaan — the Name as treasure — is what the soul carries forward, exactly the project's understanding of Naam as what stays.
If you could carry only one thing that could never be lost, what would you want it to be?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI