Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The one who plants the One's Name in my heart — that is my true companion, my real family, my best friend.
He washes away all my faults, and he is so generous to me.
This tender stanza redefines family and friendship around the gift of the Name. He is a companion, a relative, and a good friend of mine, who implants the Lord's Name within my heart. Notice the standard by which kinship is measured: not blood, not history, not social tie, but who plants the Name in your heart. The person who gives you the One — who helps the Name take root in you — is your truest companion, relative, friend. This is the same warmth found across these shabads, where the Name and those who share it are called kin; here it is stated most fully. The deepest family bond is the one that hands you the Beloved.
And what such a friend does is named with gratitude: he washes off all my demerits, and is so generous to me. The one who plants the Name does not merely add something; he washes off the soul's faults — aughan, its demerits and flaws — and does so with sheer generosity, asking nothing. This is the work of the Guru and the holy: to give freely, to cleanse without charge, to plant the priceless Name in a heart and wash its faults away as a gift. The stanza's quiet power is in its gratitude — the soul recognizing that the truest friend it has is the one who gave it the One, washed it clean, and was generous beyond reckoning. To have such a friend is to have the only family that finally matters.
Who has 'planted the Name' — or whatever is deepest and best — in your heart, freely and generously? Have you honored them as true family?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI