Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The scholars pore over their holy books. Some give up the world and bathe at sacred rivers. Some sing beautiful melodies.
As for me — I simply keep the Name of the Fearless One in mind. That is my whole practice.
This stanza is a gentle survey of the religious paths available in Guru Arjan's world, followed by a quiet, personal choice. He names them without mockery: the Pandits study the Vedas; some become renunciates and bathe at sacred shrines; some sing tunes and melodies and songs. Scholarship, hard self-denial and pilgrimage, devotional music — three honorable and demanding paths, each with its devotees.
And then, simply: But I meditate on the Naam, the Name of the Fearless Lord. Guru Arjan does not argue that the other paths are worthless; he just states what he does — he keeps the Name in mind, the Name of the Fearless One (nirbhau). There is a beautiful humility and directness in this. Against the elaborate disciplines of study, pilgrimage, and performance, he sets the plainest practice of all: remembering the Name. And it is the Name of the Fearless One — which is itself the gift, since the tradition reads such remembrance as the heart's refuge from its own fears. The stanza quietly suggests that the simplest path, available to anyone — not just the learned scholar, the dedicated hermit, or the trained musician — is the deepest: just keep the Name of the Fearless One in your heart.
Do you ever assume the deepest path must be the most elaborate — when it might be the simplest, available to anyone?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI