Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One made the world, and it plays in it a thousand different ways. Some live in comfort and enjoyment; some wander with nothing at all, the very poorest of the poor.
The One gives to everyone who asks. And its devotees lean on the Name alone — what they beg for isn't riches but the beautiful teaching of the One.
This stanza holds together the One's playful variety and its universal generosity. He Himself created the world... the Lord Himself plays in so many ways! The endless diversity of human conditions — some enjoy enjoyments, while others wander around naked, the poorest of the poor — is part of the One's vast play. Guru Ram Das, like the Vaar, does not flinch from the gulf between the comfortable and the destitute; he sets it within the divine drama without pretending it away.
But over all that inequality stands one constant: the Lord gives His gifts to all who beg for them. The One's giving is not rationed by status; whoever asks receives. And the stanza ends by distinguishing what the devotees ask for from what everyone else chases. While the world begs for comfort and riches, His devotees have the Support of the Naam... they beg for the sublime sermon of the Lord. The devotee's begging-bowl is held out not for wealth but for the katha, the teaching, the sermon — the words and presence of the One. This is the mark of a soul that has understood: it asks the great Giver not for the gifts everyone else wants, but for the Giver's own self, the Name and the teaching. Among all the things one could beg from an infinitely generous One, the devotee asks for the only one that satisfies.
If you could ask the most generous source anything, what would you ask for — and what does that reveal about what you truly want?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI