Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Is there a word that can calm the restless, wandering mind? Yes — the teacher's word.
Is there a teaching that keeps you steady through good times and bad? Yes — the teacher's teaching. The way of living that keeps you close to the One is simply this: living turned toward the teaching. And singing its praises is what such a life does, all on its own.
Now the practical questions of the fourth stanza get their practical answers, each one resolved into the Guru's Word and the Gurmukh life. The Guru's Instruction is the Word, by which the wandering mind is restrained. What can settle the hopping, restless attention? Not force, not willpower — the Shabad, the Guru's Word, which gives the mind something real to rest on. The mind wanders because it has nothing worthy to hold; give it the Word, and it settles the way a restless child settles when finally held.
Through the Guru's Teachings, we can endure pain and pleasure alike. What was asked as a question — is there a teaching for steadiness through fortune and misfortune? — is answered: yes, gurmat, the Guru's teaching, which roots you in something deeper than your circumstances so that the waves of pleasure and pain rise and fall without capsizing you.
To live as Gurmukh is the lifestyle by which we come to meditate on the Supreme Lord. The whole way of life the seeker asked for is, simply, the Gurmukh life — not a special location or costume, but a daily orientation of the face toward the One. And the last question — how may we sing the Kirtan? — is answered not as a separate task but as the natural overflow of that life: the Gurmukh sings the Kirtan of His Praises. You do not have to manufacture the singing; live turned toward the One, and the singing rises on its own, the way warmth rises from a fire. Every practical question the seeker asked is met, and met by the same orientation that answered all the rest.
When your mind won't settle, what 'word' or practice actually gives it something worthy to rest on?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI