Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
This whole world is fast asleep, hypnotized by its love for things — for **Maya**, the glittering surface of life. Forgetting the **Naam**, in the end it falls apart and loses its way. But here's the comfort: the same One who let it fall asleep is the One who will wake it up. And the alarm clock is **gurmati** — the Guru's teaching, through which real understanding finally dawns.
This verse says the world is asleep, and the same One who let it sleep will wake it.
Maa-i-aa mohi ih jag sutaa — this world is asleep in its attachment to Maya. Maya doesn't mean the world is fake. The world is real. Maya is the spell its shiny surface casts. Shiny things grab our attention so fully that we forget what's underneath — like a video game so absorbing you don't notice it got dark outside. A sleeping person isn't gone, just unaware. That's how the Guru sees us: eyes open, but asleep inside, sleepwalking through a life of chasing.
The result is stated plainly: naam visaar ant vigutaa — forgetting the Name, in the end it comes to ruin. That ruin isn't a punishment dropped from the sky. It's what naturally happens when a life is built on kachee things, the passing things of the second verse. They are bound to crumble.
But then comes the turn, and it is pure grace: jis tay sutaa so jaagaa-ay — the One who put it to sleep will wake it up. It's the same teaching as the shabad before this one: "You Yourself have deluded it." Both the sleep and the waking happen inside the One's order, hukam. There is no second power, no enemy the One must defeat to rescue you. That is deeply comforting. You are never lost outside of grace. And the way of waking is gurmat, the Guru's teaching. It isn't a sudden shock. It is understanding dawning slowly, the way morning light fills a room — gently, but surely.
Have you ever "woken up" to something you'd been sleepwalking through? What was the gentle nudge that opened your eyes?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI