Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Here is one of the most loved verses there is. The air is our teacher, the water our father, and the wide earth the great mother of us all. Day and night are like two nurses, and the whole world plays in their lap like a child.
Everything we do — the good and the not-good — is seen and counted; and by what we ourselves have done, some of us are drawn closer to the One and some drift farther away.
But those who held the Name in their hearts, and earned their living honestly by the sweat of their own hands — their faces shine at the One's door, and they do not go home alone: they carry many others to freedom right along with them.
This shalok of Guru Angad is one of the most beloved verses in all of Sikh scripture — so beloved that it also stands as the closing Salok of Japji Sahib, the seal of Guru Nanak's foundational composition. To find it here, near the close of the Maajh ki Vaar, is to meet an old friend; and it gathers up the deepest convictions of the whole tradition in a few unforgettable lines.
It begins by re-imagining the natural world as family and teacher: Air is the Guru, Water is the Father, and Earth is the Great Mother of all. The very elements that sustain us are not dead resources to be used up but our nearest kin and our first teachers — the air that breathes wisdom into us, the water that fathers life, the earth that mothers everything. And day and night are the two nurses, in whose lap all the world is at play — all of creation a child being rocked and tended in the lap of time. It is a vision of profound belonging: we are not strangers in a hostile universe but children held by elements that are family.
Then the verse turns to how a life is weighed: good deeds and bad deeds — the record is read out in the Presence of the Lord of Dharma, and according to their own actions, some are drawn closer, and some are driven farther away. What we do matters; our own deeds draw us toward the One or push us from it. And the verse ends on the tradition's most luminous promise, naming exactly who shines: those who have meditated on the Naam, and departed after having worked by the sweat of their brow. Note the two things held together — remembering the Name and honest labor, the inner life and the working hands. This is the heart of Guru Nanak's path: not renunciation, but devotion lived inside an honest working life. And of such souls: their faces are radiant in the Court of the Lord, and many others are saved along with them! They do not arrive home alone. One genuine life — remembering the One and earning honestly — carries many others into freedom with it. It is the perfect seal for both Japji and this great Vaar: belong to the elements as family, work honestly, remember the Name, and become someone whose very life lifts others home.
How would you treat the air, water, and earth differently if you genuinely felt them as teacher, father, and mother?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI