Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The **shabad** is spotlessly clean; the divine **bani** is spotlessly clean too. The pure Light shines, perfectly clean, inside every single being. So praise that pure Word, and hold the pure Name in your awareness — and as you do, all the grime inside you simply washes away.
The light deep inside every person is already clean. Any dirt is only on the outside, like dust on a lampshade.
Earlier songs were full of amrit (sweet nectar) and sach (truth). This one is washed clean by one word said again and again: nirmal. It means spotless, without a speck of dirt. Listen to it ring through the verse. Nirmal sabad nirmal hai banee — the Word is spotless, the banee (holy song) is spotless. The repeating is like clean water poured over and over. By the end of the song, you feel rinsed.
The verse names three things as spotless. The sabad, the Word of the One. The banee, the holy song. And the jot, the Light in everyone.
That last one is the most beautiful. Nirmal jot sabh maahi samaanee — the spotless Light is inside everyone. The last song said there is one Light in all. This verse adds something tender. That Light, deep inside every person, including you, is already clean. Whatever dust has gathered on the outside of a life, the Light at the center has never been dirty.
Think of a lamp with a dusty lampshade. The room looks dim. But the bulb inside is shining just as brightly as ever. The dirt is on the shade, never on the light.
So how does the outside get clean? Nirmal banee har saalaahee — praise the One through the spotless song. Jap har nirmal mail gavaavni-aa — repeat the Name of the spotless One, and the mail (dirt) washes away. You do not scrub yourself clean by force. You come close to what is perfectly clean, and your stains have nothing to hold on to. An earlier shabad said the One is so pure that no dirt can stick to Him. So the dirt lifts off us and has nowhere to land.
Clean is caught, not made. Stay near the pure Word, keep the pure Name, and you become clean. It is like standing beside a clear, cool stream on a hot day. You can't help wanting to splash your face.
If the Light deep inside you is "always already clean," how does that change the way you think about your mistakes on the surface?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI