Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I would give myself away, my whole soul poured out — for now I am yours, your servant, your own. After all the longing, this is where I rest: belonging to you completely.
The final refrain. The heartbeat that has sounded between every stanza beats one last time — and now its meaning is complete. Hau gholee jeeo ghol ghumaaee jan Naanak daas tumaare — "I am a sacrifice, my soul poured out; servant Nanak is yours."
Trace the journey of the refrain across the shabad: the self was offered first to the beloved's darshan (sight, P1), then to the beloved as friend (P3), then to the true court (P5), and now — after the reunion — simply to being yours, a daas (servant/slave) belonging wholly to the Beloved. The arc of the refrain is the arc of the love: from yearning for a glimpse, to cherishing the friend, to loving the timeless truth, to the final rest of belonging.
This last Rahao lands after the discovery that the Beloved was within the home all along (P6). So the self-offering is no longer the desperate sacrifice of one who is separated; it is the joyful, settled self-giving of one who has been found and now belongs. The same words — "I am a sacrifice" — mean something different at the end than at the beginning. At the start it was longing's cry; here it is union's contentment. The dissolving of haumai that the refrain always pointed toward is now actual: there is no separate self left clamoring; there is only daas tumaare, "yours." Signed with the lineage's name, Nanak, this most beloved of shabads ends not in ache but in peace.
The shabad begins and ends with "I am a sacrifice," but the feeling changes from aching to peaceful. What do you think made the difference?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI