Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One Himself takes life, and the One Himself gives life. The One Himself joins us, and unites us with Himself. Through selfless service (**seva**), a lasting peace is found, and the one who faces the light melts into natural, effortless peace (**sahaj**).
The "He Himself" refrain reaches its most tender and most difficult point: aape maare aap jeevaae — the One Himself gives death, and the One Himself gives life. After Pauri6's "He sets up and takes down," this brings the great rhythm right home to the most personal thing of all: living and dying. The breath that came into you and the breath that will one day leave — both are the One's. Birth and death aren't two opposed forces (life good, death bad); they're the in-breath and out-breath of the same One. This is the same comfort the gurmukh found in the last song (Shabad 74): death loses its terror once you see it's not annihilation by an enemy but the loving One drawing the breath back home.
And then the reunion the whole song has pointed toward: aape mele mel milaae — the One Himself joins us, and unites us with Himself. Notice the doubling — mele, mel milaae, joins and unites-in-union. After all the talk of the One being everything (creator and enjoyer, maya and its shadow, life and death), this is where it lands for you: the One who is all of it gathers you back into Himself. The separation (the farak the One built into your heart in Pauri0) was only ever temporary, set up for the play of seeking — and here is the play's resolution, the soul drawn home into the One it never truly left.
But the stanza adds a vital, grounding practical note so the soaring oneness doesn't float away into mere abstraction: seva te sada sukh paaia — through seva, selfless service, lasting peace is found. This is so important. After verse upon verse of "the One does everything," a person might wonder: then what's left for me to do? Just sit and watch the One play? The answer is seva — humble, selfless service of others. This is how the realization of oneness becomes a life, not just a thought. If the same one Light shines in every body (Pauri0), then serving others is serving the One; loving your neighbor is loving the One who lives in them. So the grand non-dual vision comes down to earth in the most ordinary, doable practice: serve. And from that service flows sada sukh — lasting peace — and gurmukh sahj samaavnia, merging into the effortless sahaj that the Rahao promised. The whole dizzying song of "the One is everything" resolves into something a child can do tomorrow morning: see the one Light in everyone, and serve it humbly, and find peace.
If the same Light really shines in every person, how does that turn an ordinary act of helping someone into something much bigger?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI