Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The teacher is the one who gives — and gives like cool shade on a blazing day, like a house built of ice when the heat is unbearable. The teacher is a light that reaches across all the worlds.
That kind of teaching is a wealth that never runs out. Put your heart's trust there, and peace will come.
The great Vaar opens not by describing the world or the soul, but by exalting the Guru — because the Guru is the means through which everything else in the long song becomes possible. Three images are stacked in a single breath. The Guru is the Giver — the source of every gift. The Guru is the House of ice — and this is a striking, very physical image for anyone who has felt a North Indian summer: a house made of ice, a place of cooling relief from a heat that otherwise scorches. The Guru cools — the fever of desire, the burning of ego, the heat of a restless life. And the Guru is the Light of the three worlds — illumination that reaches everywhere.
Then the heart of the opening: the Guru is everlasting wealth — sada dhan, a treasure that, unlike all worldly riches, never runs out, cannot be stolen, does not fade. The whole Vaar that follows will show the world to be a mansion of smoke, life a passing arc from milk to ashes; against all that impermanence, the Guru is named, at the very start, as the one wealth that lasts.
And the instruction is simple and warm: place your mind's faith in Him, and you shall find peace. Not perform, not achieve — trust. The Vaar begins by pointing to where the heart can safely rest before it walks through everything that passes away. Cooling shade, everlasting wealth, light for the dark road ahead: this is the ground the whole song stands on.
Where do you place your trust before you face something hard — and is that resting-place one that actually lasts?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI