Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You are the one who breaks suffering apart, a treasure so precious no price could ever buy it. You are afraid of nothing and at war with no one; you are bottomless, weightless beyond any scale. You never die, you were never born, you light yourself from within. And when my mind remembers you — it goes cool and calm and still, like shade on a hot day.
This verse lists the One's great qualities, and says that remembering them cools a hot, restless mind.
The necklace of names goes on. Several will sound familiar to anyone who knows the Mool Mantar, the opening lines of the Guru Granth Sahib. Nirbha-o means "without fear." Nirvair means "without hate for anyone." Akaal moorat means "a form beyond time and death." Ajoonee means "never born." Sambhou means "lit from within, needing nothing else to exist." Guru Arjan takes these great opening words and weaves them into a personal love song.
Each is worth a moment. Nirbha-o: the One fears nothing, so the one who remembers the One borrows some of that courage. Nirvair: the One has no enemy, no one the One is against. That is the kind heart of the Divine. Akaal moorat: beyond kaal, time and death. What you remember never wears out. Ajoonee: not caught in the circle of being born again and again. Sambhou: needing nothing else, shining from inside.
Two more names come too. Dukh bhanjan means "the breaker of pain." Nidhaan amolay means "the priceless treasure." The One is everything the worried, fragile self is not. And holding the One in mind draws us toward those same qualities.
Then the ending names a new gift of remembering. Man simrat thandhaa theevaan means "remembering, my mind becomes cool." Thandhaa means cool. Think of a fever breaking, or stepping into shade on a scorching summer day. In the first verse, remembering gave life. Here it gives coolness: the burning restlessness of the mind goes quiet. When you remember the fearless, deathless, hate-free One, your own inner heat settles. These great words aren't just ideas to learn. They are cool shade for a hot and busy mind.
The One is described as "fearless" and "at war with no one." If you held those two qualities in mind every day, how might they slowly change you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI