Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
We truly understand the One only when the One itself wakes that understanding in us; it can't be forced or manufactured. The deep knowing comes to whomever the One chooses to give it.
A person can preach and lecture beautifully and still, underneath it all, be aching for Maya — fine words don't prove a changed heart. The One made everything by the flow of its will, and it knows the inside of every being; it was the One who first spoke the Word. And for the one who receives this gift, doubt simply melts away.
This shalok of Guru Nanak makes a humbling point about the very thing the whole Vaar has been doing — understanding the One. We understand the Lord only when He Himself inspires us to understand Him. He alone knows everything, unto whom the Lord Himself gives knowledge. Real understanding of the One is not something the mind achieves by effort or cleverness; it is something the One awakens in us. The knowing is a gift, given to whom the One chooses, not a prize won by the diligent. This is the consistent teaching of Gurprasad — grace — applied even to spiritual understanding itself: you cannot think your way to the One; the One opens the understanding.
And the shalok names the giveaway that proves this: one may talk and preach and give sermons but still yearn after Maya. Here is the test that exposes mere intellectual religion. A person can be a brilliant preacher, eloquent and learned, able to expound the deepest doctrines — and underneath all the fine words still be aching for Maya, still hungry for the world. The eloquence proves nothing about the heart. Words about the One and love of the One are entirely different things, and the first can flourish while the second is absent. This is why true understanding must be given — because it lives in the heart, not the tongue, and the heart cannot be reasoned into love.
The shalok then rests on the One's sovereignty and intimacy together: the Lord, by the Hukam of His Command, has created the entire creation. He Himself knows the inner nature of all. He Himself uttered the Word. The One made everything, knows the inside of everyone (so the gap between the eloquent preacher and his unchanged heart is fully seen), and is the original speaker of the Word that awakens understanding. And the gift, when it comes, has one unmistakable fruit: doubt departs from one who receives this gift. This is how you know real understanding has been given rather than merely information acquired — not by how well you can speak, but by whether doubt has left. The mind full of arguments is often full of doubts; the heart given true understanding is simply at rest. When the One awakens the knowing, the restless second-guessing of the doubting mind quietly dissolves, and what remains is a settled certainty that no amount of preaching could ever manufacture.
Can you tell the difference in yourself between knowing a lot *about* something and having it truly awaken in you so that doubt quiets?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI