Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Before you ever made a single creature, you made the food to feed it — the milk was ready before the baby ever arrived.
No one gives the way you give; nobody even comes close. You are the Great Giver, and the giving never stops.
This one says the One got your food ready before you were even born.
The picture is simple and lovely: pahilo day taiN rijak samaahaa — first, You made rijak, food and all we need. Pichho day taiN jant upaahaa — then, You made the living beings. The food came before the one who eats. Think of an everyday wonder: a mother's milk is ready before the baby is born. What's needed is there before the need. The world was set up to feed its creatures before they took their first breath.
This quietly answers one of our deepest worries: the fear that there won't be enough, so we have to grab and hoard. Guru Arjan answers it from the very start of creation. You were cared for before you arrived. The same care that set out food for every creature is the care you live inside now. This doesn't promise that life will never be hard. But it changes the ground you stand on. You are held by a kindness that ran ahead of you.
So comes the praise: tuDh jayvad daataa avar na su-aamee — there is no Giver as great as You, my Master. Lavai na ko-ee laavani-aa — no one comes near You. The One is the daataa, the Great Giver, and giving is His very nature. Endless, not earned, always one step ahead of what we need. Japji Sahib says the same: the Giver keeps giving, and the gifts never run out. Our part isn't to make the supply. It is to notice the kindness we're already swimming in, and let it loosen our grip.
How might it change your grip on things to really trust that you were provided for before you even got here?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI