Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You could read an account of the One — *if* He fit into any account. But He doesn't: He's beyond reach, beyond the senses, too vast for any ledger. Understanding of Him comes only through the **shabad**. So day and night, praise the true Word — there's simply no other way to grasp how priceless He is.
This verse says the One is too big to fit in any record book, and the way to know the One's worth is to praise.
It makes a clever point. Laykhaa parhee-ai jay laykhay vich hovai means "we could read the account of the One, if the One fit in an account." A laykhaa is a written record, a list, a tally, something counted up. But the One is agam agochar: beyond reach, beyond the senses. The One spills over every list. You can't add the One up, list all the One's qualities, or measure the One's worth. Anything you could write down would already be too small. The One isn't one more thing in the world to count. The One is what the whole world stands on.
This is a gentle warning to anyone, like the readers in the next verse, who thinks the One can be caught in books and lists. You could read and count forever and never arrive. You could count every drop in a river and still not know what a river is. What has no end simply doesn't fit in columns. There is real humility here: stop trying to measure what can't be measured.
So how do we come to understand the One at all? Oh agam agochar sabad sudh hovai means "the One is beyond reach; through the Word, understanding comes." Sudh is understanding, awareness. It comes through the shabad, the Guru's Word, which you let sound inside you. The Word doesn't give you more facts about the One. That would just be more list entries. It gives you closeness, the kind of knowing that comes from a friendship, not from measuring.
And the last line tells you what to do. An-din sach sabad saalaahee means "night and day, praise the true Word." Why? Hor ko-ay na keemat paavni-aa: "there is no other way to know the One's worth." Keemat means value, worth. You don't work out the value of the Infinite with a calculator. You praise it. Think of how you can't put a price on your grandmother's hug, but you can say thank you. Praise is the only tool fine enough to feel what is beyond all measuring. The accountant's list fails where the lover's song succeeds.
What are some things in life whose real worth could never be written down as a number — and how do you "know" their value instead?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI