Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One is always right here — never think He is far away. Through the Guru's **shabad**, recognize Him living deep inside your own self. Nanak says: through the Name, real greatness comes to you — and the Name is given through the Perfect Guru.
This verse says the One was never far away; we are only learning to recognize Him within.
After the whole journey — the stained mind, the proud trips, the ego going quiet, freedom being caught — the shabad ends in the simplest place of all. Sadaa hajoor door na jaanhu — He is always right here; do not think He is far. Everything the shabad cleared away was only blocking our view of what was here all along. The One is not a place we travel to. The proud traveler earlier learned that. The One is antar, within, already, right now.
So the instruction is not "go and find." It is pachhaanhu — recognize. We do not get the One. We recognize Him, the way you suddenly recognize a friend's face in a crowd you had been staring at. Gur sabdee har antar pachhaanhu — through the Guru's Word, recognize the One within. The shabad, the Word, is like a camera lens that finally brings the always-present One into focus. This closes the circle from the start of the shabad. There, the One was in everything, yet being surrounded is not the same as seeing. Here, at last, is the seeing.
Naanak naam milai vadi-aa-ee — through the Name comes vadi-aa-ee, true greatness. It is not the ego's kind of greatness, and not a proud traveler's trophies. It is the quiet glory of a self that has stopped grabbing and has recognized the One, who was never anywhere but here, within, the whole time.
If the One you've been looking for is already inside you and always has been — what changes about how you'd live today?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI