See the One Light and No Other Remains

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This verse ends the shabad simply: praise the True One, because there is no other.

Sach saalaahee avar na ko-ee — praise the True One, and no other. At first this sounds like loyalty: praise only the One. But after a whole shabad about one Light in all, a deeper meaning shines through. There is no other. "Praise no other" is not a jealous rule. It is simply what is true. Once we see the one Light burning in everyone, the idea of "another" melts away. Doojaa bhaa-o, the feeling of a second thing apart from the One, has nowhere to stand. Praising the True One is just praising reality as it really is: whole, and one.

Then the fruit: jit sayvi-ai sadaa sukh ho-ee — serving Him brings lasting peace. Sadaa means always. The shabad set the things that come and go beside the One who never moves. So peace from the One lasts. It rests on what does not change, so it does not wash away when life shifts. This is the difference between ordinary happiness, which needs things to go our way, and sukh, deep peace, which rests on the One who is always here.

The last line paints the changed person: naanak naam ratay veechaaree — those dyed in the Naam, the Name, become veechaaree, thoughtful and deep. The Name does not make someone spaced-out or cut off from life. It makes them thoughtful — someone who sees beneath the surface. And sacho sach kamaavani-aa — they practice truth. They earn it and build it with their lives, as earlier shabads also said. This is where the whole shabad lands. Not in a private glow, but in a life. The one Light, the ever-present Real, all of it comes down to how we live our ordinary days. Being dyed in the Name means doing the true thing, again and again, until truth is simply who we are.