Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The arrow of the One's love has gone straight through me, mind and body.
The timeless, all-knowing One is my Beloved, my best friend. The saintly teacher joined me with that all-seeing One. I give myself to the Name.
This stanza names the love that runs through these shabads with one sharp, unforgettable image: the arrow of the Lord's Love has pierced my mind and body. Love, here, is not a gentle warmth but a piercing — an arrow that strikes clean through the whole self, mind and body together. This is the wound of divine love, the birha that the bridal poetry of Maajh knows so well: to truly love the One is to be pierced by it, to carry a sweet wound that will not close until union comes. The arrow has gone all the way through; the soul is struck, and cannot pretend otherwise.
And the one who shot the arrow is named with tenderness: the Lord, the Primal Being, is All-knowing; He is my Beloved and my Best Friend. The piercing is not a cruelty but the touch of the Beloved — the all-knowing One who is also the dearest friend. And the wound leads not to lasting pain but to union: the Saintly Guru has united me with the All-knowing and All-seeing Lord. The arrow of love, shot by the Beloved, draws the pierced soul — through the Guru — into the very One whose love wounded it. And the soul's whole response is surrender: I am a sacrifice to the Naam. To be pierced by such love is to belong to it entirely; the arrow that struck the soul also claimed it, and the soul gladly gives itself to the Name.
Have you ever been 'pierced' by love or beauty so completely it changed you — and what did it draw you toward?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI