You Become What You House in Your Heart

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This is the Rahao, the "pause" line. It is the center of the song. It says: what you keep in your heart is what you become.

Ha-o vaaree jee-o vaaree sach sachaa hirdai vasaavani-aa — I give myself, heart and soul, to those who settle the Truest of the True in their hirdai (heart). Notice the word "heart," not just "head." This is not an idea you think about. It is a living presence you make a home for, in the deepest room inside you. The last song spoke of this inner home. The whole spiritual life, this line quietly says, is making room in your heart for the One and letting Him live there.

What is the Name like? Sachaa naam sadaa hai nirmal — the True Name is always nirmal, pure and spotless. Why does that matter? Because we become like what we keep inside. Fill your heart with things that pass away and leave stains, and your heart picks up their dirt. But keep the always-pure Name there, and its purity becomes yours. An earlier shabad called the Name stain-proof. It can never get dirty, so it keeps your heart clean too.

Think of a house with a fresh spring running through it instead of a still puddle. The spring stays fresh no matter what. And it keeps everything around it fresh.

How does the Name get into the heart? Gur sabdee man vasaavani-aa — through the Guru's Word, it is settled in the mind. You do not grab it or make it yourself. The Guru's Word plants it in you, as a gift. Then you keep it, and let it live in your heart day by day.

The singer gives himself to anyone who lives this way, because their whole inner home stays clean and bright. This pause line is the seed of the whole song. Make a home for the pure One in your heart, and everything else — meeting the Beloved, the joy, the coming together — grows from there.