Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The True Teacher is a giver, and you meet him when the One arranges the meeting. With good fortune, the word settles into your mind and stays. Nanak says: the true greatness of the Name comes to you by singing the praises of the True One.
The closing stanza gathers the whole composition with one repeated, humbling idea: milai milaaiaa — you "meet" the Guru only when you are "made to meet" him. Even your meeting with your teacher isn't your own doing; the One brings it about. This rhymes exactly with the Rahao at the start, where the One Himself unites you with the sat sangat. The song begins and ends by removing your ego from the credit: the meeting, the sangat, the destiny — all of it is grace.
The Satguru is called daata, the Giver. Notice the relationship: the Guru gives; you receive. This is the cure for the masters and seekers of Pauri3 who "weep and wail," read here as trying to seize the Name by their own power. You can't earn the gift; you can only be fortunate enough (poorai bhaag) to receive it and let the shabad "settle in and stay" (vasaaiaa).
And the final word is the same as the high practice of Pauri7: singing. The "greatness of the Naam" — its vadiaai — is obtained by gun gaavania, singing the praises. The whole arc closes the loop: from the fruit tree freely giving, through the sangat the One gathers, through the mirror cleaned and the duality burned, to this — a life of grateful song, in which the greatest gift turns out to have been given all along, and your only true response is to sing.
Looking back, what important person or moment came into your life that you could never have planned or earned?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI