Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Picture the One as a vast, clear ocean. The people turned toward the teaching are like swans gliding across it, picking up pearls — the **Name** — one by one.
They bathe in that bright water day and night, and slowly all the grime of ego rinses away.
This verse paints the song's central picture: the One as a clear ocean, and wise souls as swans feeding on pearls.
Har sar saagar nirmal so-ee — the Lord is the pure Ocean. Saagar means ocean, and nirmal means spotless. The One is boundless and clear, the home of all water. And the verse says sant chugeh nit gurmukh ho-ee — the saintly ones, facing the Guru, keep pecking. The picture behind it is swans picking pearls from the sea. The pearls are the Naam, the Name.
In the old poetry of India, the swan is the wise bird. It was said to separate milk from water, and to eat only pearls while passing over plain stones. So the picture isn't just pretty. It's about telling things apart. The soul gliding on the Ocean of the One has the eye to pick out what is real and precious — the Name — from everything else floating on top. It's like finding the one true message in a noisy group chat. They feed on pearls, not pebbles.
The bathing here is the quiet, inner partner to the world's outer washing. Isnaan karahi sadaa din raatee — they bathe in it always, day and night. Ha-umai mail chukaavani-aa — and the dirt of ego is washed away. This isn't a once-a-week dip in a holy river. It is staying soaked in the One all the time. The only dirt it touches is the only dirt that matters: ha-umai, the ego. The next verses will set this true bathing beside a fake one. But here the picture is simple and pure: a white bird on a clear sea, feeding on pearls, growing cleaner every hour.
What helps you tell the real 'pearls' in your life from the ordinary pebbles that just look shiny?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI