The One is the maker, the giver, the seen and the unseen — hearing and seeing all this, the heart is left wonderstruck.
The Arc
This long Ashtapadee of the Third Guru is built almost entirely on one Gurmukhi word: aapay — He Himself. Verse after verse returns to it: the One is Himself the Creator and Himself the Enjoyer; Himself gives sustenance, fashions the world, links each person to their task, holds both the ending and beginning of life, makes some givers and some askers, stirs the very love that reaches back toward the One. Around this spine the hymn sets its promise (the treasure of the Name fills you and quiets the endless wanting) and its refrain (one Name living deep inside is the whole greatness of the Perfect One). It closes not with a command but with vismaad — wonder — the state in which the Oneness reveals itself: my God is spread through everything, everywhere.
Key Vocabulary
Aapay — He Himself; the drumbeat of the hymn: there is no second doer.
Naam khajaanaa — the treasure of the Name; fullness that ends restless wanting (taripat aaghaaee).
Hukam — the flow of existence; whatever happens moves within it (jo kichh karnaa so kar rahiaa).
Vismaad — wonder, awe; the hymn's closing note.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The aapay litany places every apparent opposite — maker and enjoyer, giver and asker, ending and beginning, pain and pleasure — inside one reality. This is Ik Onkar worked out in detail: not a God outside creation issuing orders, but the single Oneness moving as everything. It rhymes with the other closing here in Raamkalee (2065) that also ends in bismaad, and with the Fifth Guru's hymns nearby that lean the whole self on one support.
For Raag Raamkalee
Raamkalee is a dawn raag long associated with yogis and seekers. Fittingly, this hymn answers the seeker's questions not with technique but with recognition: the One you are looking for is already the maker and mover of all you see. The wonder at the end is the natural response of the awakened dawn heart.
Translation Notes
P7 (aapay maar jeevaalay, He Himself kills and revives) is rendered as the turning of every season, the ending of one thing and the beginning of another — keeping the teaching that life and death rest in one hand, while dropping any note of fear.
P11 (bharam bhulaaee, made to wander in doubt) is bent toward comfort: even a lost, unsure heart is still held inside the One.
P16 (tapaavas, justice) is rendered as fairness woven into how things work, not a courtroom threat.
The One is the maker, the giver, the seen and the unseen — hearing and seeing all this, the heart is left wonderstruck.
The Arc
This long Ashtapadee of the Third Guru is built almost entirely on one Gurmukhi word: aapay — He Himself. Verse after verse returns to it: the One is Himself the Creator and Himself the Enjoyer; Himself gives sustenance, fashions the world, links each person to their task, holds both the ending and beginning of life, makes some givers and some askers, stirs the very love that reaches back toward the One. Around this spine the hymn sets its promise (the treasure of the Name fills you and quiets the endless wanting) and its refrain (one Name living deep inside is the whole greatness of the Perfect One). It closes not with a command but with vismaad — wonder — the state in which the Oneness reveals itself: my God is spread through everything, everywhere.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The aapay litany places every apparent opposite — maker and enjoyer, giver and asker, ending and beginning, pain and pleasure — inside one reality. This is Ik Onkar worked out in detail: not a God outside creation issuing orders, but the single Oneness moving as everything. It rhymes with the other closing here in Raamkalee (2065) that also ends in bismaad, and with the Fifth Guru's hymns nearby that lean the whole self on one support.
For Raag Raamkalee
Raamkalee is a dawn raag long associated with yogis and seekers. Fittingly, this hymn answers the seeker's questions not with technique but with recognition: the One you are looking for is already the maker and mover of all you see. The wonder at the end is the natural response of the awakened dawn heart.
Translation Notes