Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The fish lives in the water it was born from. Its happy times and hard times come from what it did before.
It cannot stay out of the water for even a moment. Its life and its death depend on the water.
We live in the One the way a fish lives in water.
Meen nivaas upjai jal hee tay — the fish lives in water, and was born from water. This fish-and-water picture comes up again and again in the Guru's words. The soul cannot live apart from the One, just as a fish cannot live out of water. Sukh dukh purab kamaa-ee — its good and hard times follow its past actions. That is karma: what we do comes back to us.
Khin til reh na sakai pal jal bin — it cannot last even a moment without water. For the fish, water is where it came from, its home, and its breath, all at once.
Think of the air around you. You do not visit it. You live in it with every breath. The One is like that — not an object standing outside us, but the very thing we live in.
What is something so much a part of your life that you'd notice instantly if it were gone?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI