Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When you turn toward the light, the One carries you across to safety. When you turn toward the light, the One becomes your traveling companion, walking right beside you. The kind, merciful One is found this way — by turning toward the light. There simply is no other way to find it.
This stanza hammers the refrain word: gurmukh appears at the start of every line. Gurmukh madhusoodan nistaare — "for the one turned toward the light, [the One] carries across." Gurmukh sangee — "for the gurmukh, [the One] becomes a companion (sangee)." Daiaal damodar gurmukh paaeeai — "the merciful One is found by the gurmukh." Then the firm conclusion: horat kitai na bhaatee — "by no other method, no other way (bhaatee)."
Notice the divine names drawn here from the wider Indian devotional world: Madhusudan, Krishna, Murari, Damodar — all names associated with Krishna and Vishnu. Guru Arjan is deliberately gathering up the beloved names of the bhakti traditions and pointing to the one reality behind all of them. This is the project's Ik Onkar in action: not a rival deity, but the recognition that the One the Vaishnavs love by these names is the same One — and the way to it is the same way, gurmukh.
The most tender promise is gurmukh sangee — the One becomes your companion. The vast, unreachable One of the Rahao is here a friend who walks beside you. But the verse insists, gently and firmly, on the single condition: this only happens for the gurmukh. Why "no other way"? Because the obstacle was never the One's distance — it was the direction the seeker's face was turned. Turned inward on the ego (manmukh), you cannot see what is right beside you. Turned toward the Guru's teaching (gurmukh), the companion who was always there becomes visible. The "only way" is not a narrow rule but a simple fact: you can only see what you are facing.
The verse says the One becomes a "companion" to those who turn toward it. What changes when you think of the deepest thing in life as a friend walking beside you, rather than something far away?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI