Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The ones who get joined to **sach** — to what's real and true — are the ones who delight You, O One. They serve the True One always, easily and naturally (**sahaj**). Through the true **shabad** they praise the True One, and they're brought home into the great merging of Truth.
This verse says that when you are joined to what is true, serving the One comes as easily as breathing.
The last song kept repeating amrit, nectar. This one keeps repeating sach: true, real, lasting. Listen to it drum through the verse: sach laagay, sach sayveh, sachai sabad, sachaa saalaahee, sachai mayl. The repeating is the point. Guru Amar Das soaks the whole song in truth, the way water soaks a sponge. To live in sach is to live in what is real and lasting. The opposite is jhooth: flimsy, short-lived stuff the ego builds, like a sandcastle before the tide comes in.
The first line holds a surprise. Say sach laagay jo tudh bhaa-ay means "those who please You are joined to the Truth." Notice it doesn't say "work hard to please the One and you'll be paid with truth." Being joined to truth and pleasing the One are the same thing. And even the joining happens because it pleased the One to draw them close. That gently removes the ego's deal-making, the "I'll do this so I get that." You don't trade your way to truth. You are drawn into it.
Then the song's quiet keyword. Sadaa sach sayveh sahj subhaa-ay means "they serve the True One always, with natural ease." Sahj means natural ease. Subhaa-ay means "by their very nature." This thread runs through these songs of Guru Amar Das. Living in truth isn't a tight-fisted struggle. When you are lined up with what is real, serving it feels as natural as breathing.
The whole verse moves easily. Drawn by grace into truth. Serving by nature. And at last, sachai mayl milaavani-aa, "they merge into the merging of Truth," like a true note finding its place in a true chord. To love such people is to want to live that way too: easy, real, unforced truth.
What's the difference between things in your life that are "real and lasting" and things that just *look* good but quickly fade?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI