Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I would give myself completely to my perfect teacher — the one who cut away every rope that was tying me down. The teacher set the living Name inside my heart and made me clean and clear again. And now, Nanak says, I am soaked in the color of love, full of sweetness, like a fountain of nectar.
The shabad closes with gratitude and transformation. Hau balihaaree satgur poore — "I am a balihaar (sacrifice) to the perfect Guru." The self-offering we have seen throughout the section returns, directed at the one who freed her. And the freedom is described as jin bandhan kaate sagle mere — "who cut (kaate) all my bandhan (bonds, ropes)." The seeker was tied down — by anxiety, by ego, by the endless chasing of the Rahao — and the Guru simply cut the ropes. Notice she did not untie them herself through effort; they were cut for her. Grace again: liberation done to her, not achieved by her.
Then the double gift: hirdai naam de nirmal kee-e — "[the Guru] placed the Naam in the heart and made [me] nirmal (pure, spotless, clear)." First the Name is given (planted in the heart, as in earlier shabads), and the giving itself purifies. Nirmal — without mal, without the dirt of ego we met in chapter Shabad 3. The grime that accumulates from forgetting and separateness is washed clean not by scrubbing but by the presence of the Name. Fill the heart with the One, and the dirt simply has no room to remain.
The final image is pure joy: Naanak rang rasaala — "Nanak is rang (dyed in love's color) and rasaala (a fountain/storehouse of ras, nectar-sweetness)." Recall rang, the permanent dye of divine love, and ras, the sublime taste — both return here, fused. The seeker who began the shabad running hungry in every direction (Rahao) ends dyed through with love and overflowing with sweetness. The hunger is not just satisfied; it is transformed into its opposite — the empty chaser becomes a fountain. Signed with the lineage's name, Nanak. From forgetting and famine to remembering and overflowing nectar: that is the whole journey of the shabad.
The seeker's "bonds were cut" — not by her own struggling, but for her. What are the "ropes" that tie people down inside? Which ones do you think you can't cut by yourself?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI