Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The Dear One knows every heart from within.
People do wrong and hide it from others. But the One is there to see it, like the air that is everywhere.
Nothing we do is hidden, because the One is everywhere, like the air.
This is the rahaa-o, the "pause" line. It is the center of the shabad, the idea everything else leans on.
Antarjaamee means the inner-knower, the One who knows what is in every heart. This is not a spy watching from outside. It is the One who sees from within.
A person can do something wrong and hide it from other people. But Guru Arjan says the One is like pavaan, the air. Try to find a room in your house with no air in it. There isn't one. You cannot step outside the air, and you cannot step outside the One.
There is no threat here, only a plain fact. And it opens the real subject of the song: the difference between looking holy and being real inside.
How does it feel to be fully known by someone who is not judging you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI