Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
How great You are — only You could ever really know. You alone fully understand Your own self; the rest of us can only catch glimpses. So I give myself completely in gratitude to those awake souls who have ground down their grasping wants, their anger, and their greed until those things lost their power.
This verse admits that only the One can fully know the One, and then honors the people who have tamed their worst wants.
Tayree mahimaa — Your greatness — only You know it. After so much praise, Guru Arjan steps back. All our words fall short. The One is so vast that only the One can take it all in. This keeps us honest. We do not have the One figured out. Our best words point at something bigger than the words. Admitting that is a kind of Waheguru — the wonder we feel at what is too great to hold.
Then the verse turns. If we cannot grasp the One directly, we can see the One in people whose lives have been changed. Ha-o balihaaree santan tayray — I give myself in thanks to Your saints. A person like that is a window. And the verse says what they did: jin kaam kroDh lobh peethaa. They ground down kaam (grasping want), kroDh (anger) and lobh (greed). These are three of the five inner thieves that bend how we see and act.
Peethaa means ground down, like grain in a mill. It does not say these people never feel anger or wanting again. It says they wore those feelings down from loud bosses to quiet whispers. Nobody gets rid of anger or wanting for good, and no one should feel like a failure for having them. The aim is to wear them down until they stop running the show. That happens by staying near the One, not by fighting a war against yourself. Think of a room that fills with light. The shadows shrink without anyone chasing them. A heart full of the One has less and less room for greed and anger to grow.
Anger, wanting, and greed visit everyone. Which one is loudest in you right now — and what helps quiet it, even a little?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI