No scale can weigh You; let the mind be the scale and love the weighing — for You are the scale, the weigher, and the trader, all at once.
The Arc
A shabad built on the image of the jeweler's scale. It opens with wonder: what scale, weights, or assayer could ever measure You, and from what teacher would I learn how? The Rahao answers — my Beloved, Your limits are unknown; You fill water, land, and sky. Then the measuring turns inward: let the mind be the scale, attention the weights, loving service the appraiser, and weigh the Beloved within the heart. The next turn dissolves even that: You Yourself are the scale, the weights, the pointer, the weigher, even the trader. The close is empty-handed humility — the soul a small wanderer the world ranks as nothing, in whose company Nanak dwells, wondering how one so small could reach the One; grace alone can.
Key Vocabulary
taraajee / tulaa / kandaa: scale / weights / pointer of the balance
saraaf: assayer, appraiser of precious metal
deekhi-aa: instruction
vanjaaraa: the trader, the merchant
neech jaat pardaysee: (the world's ranking of) a low wanderer, a stranger
moorhaa: the simple one, a gentle self-address
Themes and Cross-Connections
"You are the scale and the weigher both" is the Aapay vision again — no standpoint outside the One from which to measure it. The close, keeping company with the wanderer the world calls nothing, is Nanak's lifelong caste-leveling: worth is not in rank, and grace reaches the smallest. The immeasurable Beloved filling jal thal mahee-al recurs from this batch's opening shabad — the One both within and everywhere.
For Raag Soohee
Soohee weighs love, not gold; here the heart's scale finds a Beloved beyond all measure, and learns that the measuring itself was the One all along.
Translation Notes
neech jaat (P4) is read as the world's ranking, which Nanak levels, rather than as a real judgment of worth; moorhaa is rendered as gentle self-address ("one so small as me") rather than "fool," per the project's wellbeing handling.
No scale can weigh You; let the mind be the scale and love the weighing — for You are the scale, the weigher, and the trader, all at once.
The Arc
A shabad built on the image of the jeweler's scale. It opens with wonder: what scale, weights, or assayer could ever measure You, and from what teacher would I learn how? The Rahao answers — my Beloved, Your limits are unknown; You fill water, land, and sky. Then the measuring turns inward: let the mind be the scale, attention the weights, loving service the appraiser, and weigh the Beloved within the heart. The next turn dissolves even that: You Yourself are the scale, the weights, the pointer, the weigher, even the trader. The close is empty-handed humility — the soul a small wanderer the world ranks as nothing, in whose company Nanak dwells, wondering how one so small could reach the One; grace alone can.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
"You are the scale and the weigher both" is the Aapay vision again — no standpoint outside the One from which to measure it. The close, keeping company with the wanderer the world calls nothing, is Nanak's lifelong caste-leveling: worth is not in rank, and grace reaches the smallest. The immeasurable Beloved filling jal thal mahee-al recurs from this batch's opening shabad — the One both within and everywhere.
For Raag Soohee
Soohee weighs love, not gold; here the heart's scale finds a Beloved beyond all measure, and learns that the measuring itself was the One all along.
Translation Notes
neech jaat (P4) is read as the world's ranking, which Nanak levels, rather than as a real judgment of worth; moorhaa is rendered as gentle self-address ("one so small as me") rather than "fool," per the project's wellbeing handling.