Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Praising the One who holds up the whole universe is the very heart of being alive — and it is the real wealth of the holy.
Nanak is carried across by the Name, and at the One's door he is cheered and welcomed home.
The shabad closes by naming praise as both the essence of life and the wealth of the Saints. The Praise of the Sustainer of the Universe is the essence of life. Of everything a life contains, the praise of the One — the One who sustains all things, holds the universe up moment to moment — is the essence, the innermost point, the thing a life is finally for. Strip away everything else, and what remains as the heart of being alive is this: to praise the Sustainer. And the same praise is the wealth of His Saints — what the holy treasure as their true riches is not gold but the praise of the One. The Saints are rich precisely in this.
And the shabad ends in arrival and welcome: Nanak is saved, chanting the Naam; in the True Court, he is cheered and applauded. The soul carried across by the Name does not slip into the One's Court unnoticed; it is cheered and applauded — welcomed home with joy, celebrated. This is a warm and human image of the homecoming the whole raag aches toward: not a fearful judgment but a glad reception, the returning soul greeted with applause. The shabad that began with the simple Name resolving all affairs ends with that same Name carrying the soul across the ocean and into a Court that cheers its arrival. Praise is the essence of life, the wealth of the Saints, and the very thing that brings the soul home to a welcome.
If praise of what sustains everything were the 'essence of life,' how much of your life is actually given to it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI