Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Every living being and creature is held inside Your shelter — all of us are under Your care. Like a player setting up a board game, You place each of us, and You see clearly who is "raw" and who is "ripe," who is still learning and who is ready. Day and night, You are the one who moves us to act, and You Yourself gather us back into union with You.
This verse says every creature is safe in the One's shelter, like pieces on a game board the One sets up and guides home.
It uses two homey pictures. First: "jee-a jant sabh saran tumaaree" — all beings and creatures are in Your saran, Your shelter. Not just people, not just holy people. Every animal, every insect, every person, whether doing well or struggling. There's no creature outside the shelter. That's a comfort. You don't have to earn your way into the One's care. You were never outside it.
The second picture is a board game. "Aapay Dhar daykheh kachee pakee saaree" — You place the saaree, the game pieces, and see which are kachee (raw, unripe) and which are pakee (ripe). Think of chaupar, an old Indian game a lot like Ludo, where pieces race toward home. Some pieces are still out on the board. Others have made it home. It's a gentle way to see where each soul is. Not "good people and bad people," but "pieces further along and pieces still traveling." And You placed them all, and You watch them all with the same care. A piece still out on the board isn't hated. It just isn't home yet.
The last line clears away any worry about being a piece on someone else's board. "An-din aapay kaar karaa-ay aapay mayl milaavani-aa" — day and night You make us act, and You Yourself bring us into union. This is hukam, the One's order, again. But feel the tone. It's not a cold player pushing helpless pieces around. It's the same One who shelters every creature, bringing each piece, in its own time, all the way home. Even the unripe pieces are headed home. The board isn't a trap. It's the path.
If everyone — including the people who seem "behind" or who annoy you — is just a game piece still on its way home, how might that change the way you see them?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI