Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
There is one air that everyone breathes. We are all shaped from the same clay. The same light glows inside every living thing. That one light shines through all the different bodies — through each one differently, yet it never gets mixed up or muddied; it stays itself in everyone. By the teacher's grace I finally saw it: the One, in all of us. To that teacher, I give myself completely.
This is one of the most quietly radical verses in the Guru Granth Sahib — a direct statement of Ik Onkar as oneness without separation. Eko pavan — one breath, one air. Maatee sabh ekaa — all of us are the same clay. Sabh ekaa jot sabaaeeaa — one single jot (light) shines in all. There is no division at the root: the air in your lungs is the air in everyone's; the stuff of your body is the stuff of the earth and every other body; the awareness lighting you is the same awareness lighting all.
Then comes a subtle, important qualification: bhin bhin na ralaee — the one light shines distinctly in each being, yet "does not mix" or get diluted. This is the genius of the teaching. Oneness does not erase the individual. The same light in you and in your brother does not blur you into a featureless soup; it shines bhin bhin, distinctly, through each unique form, while remaining undivided in itself. Unity and uniqueness are not enemies. You are wholly yourself and wholly made of the one light — both at once.
And how is this seen? Gur parsaadee ik nadree aaiaa — "by the Guru's grace (parsaad), the One came into view." This cannot be reasoned into; it is seen when grace opens the eye. The refrain hau satgur vitahu vataaiaa — "I am a sacrifice to the Guru" — answers the enormity of being shown that everything is, at bottom, one. This is the dissolving of haumai at its deepest: the illusion of being a separate self cannot survive the sight of the one light in all.
If the same light shines in you and in everyone you meet — including people you find difficult — how might that change the way you treat them?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI