Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Step one: in the very beginning there was only the One, who brought itself forth. Step two: the feeling of "two" appeared — the sense that there's me and then something *other* than me. Step three came the three-flavored **Maya**, the swirling world of qualities that pulls us this way and that. But there's a fourth step, the highest rung of the ladder, and the **gurmukh** climbs to it — by living what is real, and only what is real.
This verse gives a map of everything as four steps, and says the gurmukh climbs to the fourth, highest step by living truth.
Step one: "aykam aikai aap upaa-i-aa" — first, the One made Himself. There was only the One, whole and undivided. This is Ik Onkar, "there is One."
Step two: dubiDhaa doojaa, the feeling of "two." It's the sense that there's a separate "me" and a separate "everything else." Sikh teaching calls this doojaa bhaa-o. It's the first crack in how we see, as if the one seamless whole split into me and the world.
Step three: taribaDh maa-i-aa, the three-sided Maya. Maya is the world's pull. Its three sides are called the Trai Gun, three qualities everything is woven from. Rajas is busy restlessness, always doing and getting. Tamas is heaviness and dullness, like a sleepy Sunday on the couch. Sattva is calm and goodness. Here's the surprise. Guru Amar Das teaches that all three hold you, even the good one. Why? As long as you're inside the three, you're still a separate self being pushed around. Being "good" in the everyday way is much better than being dull or grabby. But it isn't yet freedom.
So there's a fourth. "Cha-uthee pa-orhee" — the fourth step, called the Cha-uthaa Pad, the fourth state. It isn't a fourth quality added on. It's above all three. It's a soul that has stepped off the spinning wheel of Maya and rests in the One. Think of a merry-go-round. The fourth step is stepping off onto still ground.
Who gets there? The gurmukh, the one facing the Guru, "sacho sach kamaavani-aa," by living truth and only truth. Everything in this song, the inner wrestling, the burning of the robbers, the soaking in love, is the climb to this step. Old yoga teaching also speaks of a fourth state, turiya. The Gurus describe it as the natural home of a soul blended with the One, not a trance you have to work into.
Can you tell the difference between doing the right thing because you're forced or want a reward, and doing it from a deep, free place where it's just who you are? Which feels more free?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI