Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Holding the Name in my heart, I found a huge, deep happiness. Singing the wonders of the One, my mind cooled right down and grew calm. Through the perfect teacher, the celebrations are ringing out — drums of joy! — because Nanak has won the hardest battle there is: the battle of life itself.
The shabad closes in victory and joy — and notice the surprising turn: after all the talk of surrender ("nothing is ours to do," P2), the ending speaks of winning. Naam dhiaae mahaa sukh paaiaa — "remembering (dhiaae) the Naam, I found mahaa sukh (great peace, immense happiness)." Har gun gaae meraa man seetalaaiaa — "singing the One's praises, my mind became seetal (cool)." Once more the section's signature seetal — the fevered, fearful mind cooled by remembrance (Shabad 28). The peace and the cooling come not from striving but from remembering and singing.
Then the triumphant close: gur poorai vajee vaadhaaee, Naanak jitaa bikhaarhaa — "through the perfect Guru, the vaadhaaee (congratulations, the celebratory drums/sounds of victory) vajee (resound, ring out); Nanak has jitaa (won) the bikhaarhaa (the hard battle, the difficult contest)." Recall the akhaarhaa (arena) from P1 — life as the One's wrestling-ground. Here the contest in that arena is won. Life is a bikhaarhaa, a genuinely hard battle (no pretending it is easy), and the seeker has won it.
But how? Here is the beautiful paradox. The battle of life is won not by fighting harder, not by the ego's strength (the very thing renounced in P2 — naahee kichh asaarhaa), but through the Guru and through remembrance. The victory is announced gur poorai — "through the perfect Guru." The one who surrendered everything, who admitted "nothing is mine to do," is precisely the one who wins. Because the real battle of life is the battle with haumai itself — the anxious, fearful, grasping ego. And you cannot defeat the ego by ego; you defeat it by surrender, by remembrance, by letting the Guru's grace fight for you. The seeker won the hardest battle by laying down her weapons and resting in the One who is her father, mother, and protector. The arc completes: the One is all-protecting, so there is no fear (Rahao); even recognition is grace, all is the One's play (P1); nothing is the seeker's own doing (P2); and so, having surrendered all, she wins the battle of life through the Guru, cooled and full of joy (P3). Signed with the lineage's name, Nanak. The victory belongs to the one who surrendered.
The seeker "wins the battle of life" right after admitting nothing is hers to do. How can letting go and surrendering be a kind of winning? What battle might be won by stopping the fight?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI