You Turn Spotless Only by Nearness to the Pure

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This last verse says there is only the True One, and those He draws close become clean.

Tis baajhahu sachay mai hor na ko-ee means "besides the True One, I know no other at all." It is Ik Onkar, "there is One," said as a personal "I know this." After all the talk of gurmukh and manmukh, garden and Gardener, sickness and peace, the singer reaches solid ground. There isn't really a second thing. Me and the world, this kind of person and that kind: all of that splitting melts into one seeing. There is only the One. The whole song was learning to stop seeing things as separate.

The middle line finishes the song's picture of becoming clean. Jis laa-ay la-ay so nirmal ho-ee means "whoever He joins to Himself becomes pure." Nirmal means spotless. Think back to the pause line: lose the self, find the One. Here that movement is complete. You don't scrub yourself clean by your own effort. The manmukh's hard work only made the load heavier. You become clean by being drawn close to the One who is already pure, the way a muddy hand comes clean under running water. And notice who does it. He joins you. The cleaning is His doing. Purity is received in His embrace, not made by your pushing.

The final line seals the song's deepest theme, grace. Jis dayvai so paavni-aa means "the one He gives it to is the one who receives it." This phrase comes back at the end of many of these songs, because everything rests on it. Naam vasai ghat antar means "the Name lives deep inside the heart." That Name is a gift, placed there, just like "whatever He places within" in the verse before.

This keeps the whole teaching from becoming one more prize for the ego to win and brag about. You can't earn the Name. You can only become an empty cup, with the self set aside, that grace can fill. The song ends not with a victory shout, but with letting go. That is the most peaceful place there is.