Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One planted a deep longing for its Name right inside me. I have met my truest friend, and found peace.
Just to see my One keeps me alive, O my mother. The Name is my friend, my brother, my whole family.
This shabad opens with a quietly profound idea: the longing itself is a gift. The Lord has implanted a longing for the Lord's Name within me. The ache the soul feels for the One was not generated by the soul on its own — it was planted there, by the One. This reframes all the yearning of these shabads. The longing is not a sign of distance or lack; it is a seed the Beloved sowed in the heart, drawing the soul home from the inside. If you ache for the One, that ache is already the One at work in you.
And the longing, planted by grace, leads to its own fulfillment: I have met the Lord God, my Best Friend, and I have found peace. The stanza then names the One in the tenderest, most familial terms — and these matter. Beholding my Lord God, I live, O my mother. The Lord's Name is my Friend and Brother. The One is friend, brother, family; the Name is the relationship that holds when all others pass. For a soul that may have felt alone, this is deep comfort: the Name is kin. And beholding the One is what keeps the soul alive — not metaphorically but as its very life. The longing was planted, the friend was met, peace was found, and the soul discovers in the One the family that does not fail.
Could a longing you carry be less an emptiness in you and more a seed planted to draw you somewhere good?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI