Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The most worthwhile thing you can do is serve the True Teacher. When you do, the One quietly moves in to live in your mind — you don't even have to strain for it. The One is like a tree heavy with fruit; whoever drinks its sweet nectar finds their deep thirst finally gone.
The opening image is a tree — safli-o birakh, a tree full of fruit. Think of how a fruit tree just gives: it doesn't perform, it doesn't scheme, it simply produces what it is. The One is described this way to tell you that nourishment is freely available; you only have to come and drink the amrit, the nectar.
Notice the word achint — "without thinking, without anxious effort." When you serve the Satguru, the One comes to dwell in your mind on its own. This is Guru Amar Das's recurring note: the real thing arrives effortlessly once you turn toward the teacher. You don't capture the divine; you make room, and it moves in.
And the promise is the quenching of tikha — thirst. We spend life thirsty: for approval, for more, for the next thing. Ordinary drinks never quite satisfy that thirst, so we keep reaching. But the nectar of the One's presence is different — it actually ends the thirst. That's the test of the real thing: not that it's exciting, but that you finally stop needing the next sip.
What thirst have you been trying to quench with things that never quite fill you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI