Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I hold my Beloved close with every single breath I take, in and out. The teacher's kindness planted this understanding in my mind so it would stay. And it is by your grace that the light dawned inside me — you, the all-merciful One who lovingly takes care of everyone.
This pauri describes remembrance at its most continuous and traces it entirely to grace. Prabh apunaa saas saas samaarau — "I samaarau (hold close, cherish, keep in mind) my One with saas saas (every breath)." We have met saas saas throughout the section (Shabad 14, Shabad 17, Shabad 22) — remembrance woven into breathing itself, so that to inhale and exhale is to remember. This is simran at its ripest: not a scheduled activity but the rhythm of being alive.
But notice immediately that the seeker does not claim this as her achievement: ih mat gur parsaad man dhaarau — "this mat (understanding, this very way of remembering) I dhaarau (hold, enshrine) in the mind gur parsaad (by the Guru's grace)." Even the capacity to remember with every breath is a gift of the Guru, planted in her (recall sumat guru te paaee, Shabad 14; dirhaaiaa, Shabad 5). She did not generate the breath-by-breath remembrance; it was given.
And the climax makes the dependence total: tumree kirpaa te hoe pargaasaa — "by your kirpaa (grace), the pragaas (light, illumination, dawning) happens." The inner light does not dawn by the seeker's effort; it dawns by grace. Recall Shabad 30, where the One was revealed within the mind (pragtaaiaa) when the ego dissolved — here that revealing is named explicitly as grace (tumree kirpaa te). The light is given, not earned. And the One that gives it is sarab maiaa pratipaalaa — "all-merciful (sarab maiaa), cherishing everyone (pratipaal)." The grace that lights up one heart is the same boundless mercy that cherishes all (recall the universal pratipaal of Shabad 28). The teaching is consistent with the whole section: every step — the breath-by-breath remembrance, the understanding to do it, the dawning of inner light — is grace upon grace, flowing from a mercy that holds everyone. The seeker contributes the willingness; the One contributes everything else.
The seeker says even her remembering and her inner light were given to her, not achieved. Can you think of something good in you that you didn't create yourself — that was given, taught, or sparked by someone else?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI