The Road Runs Through Those Who Already Know

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

The shabad closes by turning from the saints' relationship with the One to the seeker's relationship with the saints — and this is where the practical teaching lands. Un santan kai meraa man kurbaane — "my mind is a kurbaan (sacrifice, offering) to those saints." The seeker offers herself not directly to the unreachable One, but to those who know it. Why? Because jin toon jaataa, jo tudh man bhaane — "those who have known (jaataa) you, who are pleasing to your mind." The saints are the ones who have actually realized the One; to be near them is the surest way to the One they carry.

This is Sat Sangat as the section has taught it throughout (recall Shabads 1–6): you reach the Beloved through the company of those who already know the Beloved. And the result is stated plainly: tin kai sang sadaa sukh paaiaa — "in their sang (company) I found sadaa sukh — lasting, permanent peace." Not fleeting comfort, but the sukh that does not fade, the peace of sach (the real, the permanent). The company of the awakened gives what the world's pleasures (which are kachaa, fading) never can.

The final note returns to the section's recurring fulfillment: har ras Naanak tripat aghaanaa — "with the har ras (the sweet essence of the One), Nanak is tripat aghaanaa — satisfied, filled to the brim." This is the end of the hunger that drove the running in earlier shabads (the bhukh of Shabad 13, the dhaavai). In the company of the saints, drinking the ras, the seeker is full — the wanting has stopped. And so the whole arc resolves: true worship is alignment with the Will (Rahao); the saints are those who have come to rest in the One (P1); the One cherishes, plays with, loves, and breathes in them (P2); and therefore the seeker's surest path is to give herself to the saints' company, where lasting peace and full satisfaction are found (P3). Signed with the lineage's name, Nanak. The road to the Beloved runs through those who already love it.