Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Inside this cave — your own body — there is one especially beautiful place. When the Perfect Guru clears away ego and doubt, you find it. There, night and day, dyed in the One's love, you praise the Name — and you reach it by the Guru's grace.
Inside you there is one especially beautiful room, and the Beloved is waiting there.
Is gufaa meh ik thaan suhaa-i-aa — inside this gufaa (cave) there is one beautiful place. The cave is your own body. An earlier shabad in this raag called the body a cave that holds treasure. Another said it holds everything: the whole world, the ego, the good and the bad, the darkness, and the Beloved too. But here we learn that one spot inside is purely beautiful. It is the heart's true home, where the One lives. Some shabads call it the "tenth door," the hidden inner gate.
Think of a big, messy house. Every room is full of stuff. But behind all the clutter there is one bright, quiet room, and someone who loves you is waiting in it.
Why do most people never find that room? Poorai gur ha-umai bharam chukaa-i-aa — the Perfect Guru clears away ha-umai and bharam. Ha-umai is the puffed-up "I," the "me, me, mine" feeling. It fills the house so full that you never notice the bright room behind it. Another shabad pictured it as the ego standing in the doorway. Bharam is doubt and confusion. It keeps your attention flitting everywhere except the one place worth looking, like the restless crow of an earlier shabad. When these two are cleared away, the room that was always there comes into view. And it is the Guru who does the clearing.
What do you do once you find it? An-din naam salaahan rang raatay — day and night, rang raatay (dyed deep in love), you praise the Name. "Dyed" is like cloth soaked in a color that never washes out. This room is not a place to visit once. It is a place to live.
Gur kirpaa tay paavni-aa — you reach it by the Guru's grace. You do not earn your way in. The Guru clears the way, and grace lets you in.
So here is a gentle promise. However cluttered or dark your inner house may feel, there is one beautiful room where the Beloved waits. When the Guru clears away the "me" and the restless doubt, you will find it. And you can live there, dyed in love, praising the Name.
If there's "one beautiful place" inside you where peace and love already live, what usually keeps you from finding it — and what helps you get there?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI