Sikhism·Raag Saarang·Shabad 17
Verse 4 of 5

One Becomes Many, Many Become One

ਏਕਸੁ ਤੇ ਲਾਖ ਲਾਖ ਤੇ ਏਕਾ ਤੇਰੀ ਗਤਿ ਮਿਤਿ ਕਹਿ ਨ ਸਕਾਉ ॥
aykas tay laakh laakh tay aykaa tayree gat mit kahi na sakaa-o.
From Your Oneness, You become tens of thousands, and from tens of thousands, You become One. I cannot describe Your state and extent.
ਤੂ ਬੇਅੰਤੁ ਤੇਰੀ ਮਿਤਿ ਨਹੀ ਪਾਈਐ ਸਭੁ ਤੇਰੋ ਖੇਲੁ ਦਿਖਾਉ ॥੩॥
too bay-ant tayree mit nahee paa-ee-ai sabh tayro khayl dikhaa-o. ||3||
You are Infinite - Your value cannot be appraised. Everything I see is Your play. ||3||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

From one You become countless — every tree, every animal, every person, every star. And all those countless things are still just One.

I could never measure You or explain You. Everything I look at, the whole wide world, is Your game being played out in front of me.

The many things you see are one thing wearing countless faces.
The deeper layer

One reality appears as the many without ever stopping being one: the Ik Onkar teaching in miniature. Calling creation "Your play" (khel) frames it not as a machine or a courtroom but as a living, joyful game. The honest admission "I cannot describe You" is itself a kind of praise: some things are too vast to fit inside words.

A Question to Sit With

Can you look at two very different things and sense they are made of the same aliveness?

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI

About this shabad →
Use ← → to navigate