Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The joyful One, cherisher of the world, is my companion always — never away from me. It takes care of everyone the same, the high and the low. The Name is like a magic medicine that fills my mind completely. Turned toward the light, I get to drink that deathless nectar.
This verse says the One is always beside you, and cares for the famous and the forgotten exactly the same.
After two verses naming the One's huge and tender qualities, this one turns to what the One does with us. Sadaa sangee har rang gopaalaa means "the joyful Lord, keeper of the world, is my constant companion." Sangee means companion. Sadaa means always. The endless, bottomless One of the last verses is also the friend who never leaves your side. The One who fills you with wonder and the One who is always near are the same.
The line at the center of this verse turns the world's ideas upside down. Ooch neech karay partipaalaa means "He cares for the high and the low." Ooch means high. Neech means low. Partipaal means the loving care a parent gives. The same care goes to people the world puts at the top and people it pushes to the bottom, with no difference at all. The One doesn't use the world's rankings. The powerful and the powerless, the praised and the ignored, are loved the same.
Think of how often we get measured: grades, scores, who gets picked first for the team. This verse is a big comfort. Your worth to the One has nothing to do with where the world puts you.
The ending names another gift of remembering. Naam rasaa-in man tariptaa-in means "the Name is a nectar that fills the mind." The Naam is the Name of the One. Rasaa-in is a healing drink, a fountain of sweetness. Tariptaa-in means filling up, satisfying. And gurmukh amrit peevaan means "facing the Guru, I drink the nectar." A gurmukh is someone turned toward the Guru. Amrit is the deathless nectar.
Remembering gave life in the first verse, then coolness. Here it gives fullness, the end of the hunger that kept us running. A mind that never felt full is filled by the nectar of the Name. And it is drunk as a gurmukh, by the one who turns toward the Guru's guidance. The endless, always-near One who loves everyone equally becomes, through remembering, the nectar that finally satisfies.
The One cares for "high and low" with no difference. Have you ever been judged by your rank — your grades, your team, your popularity? How does it feel to imagine being cherished completely apart from all that?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI