Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
This is the first step, and it is a promise: to make everyday life itself the practice — to live with fairness and kindness, and to let go of what harms.
Hold the Name close, keep the One in mind, and turn toward the Teacher with your whole heart; the weight of old wrongs begins to lift.
By great good fortune a quiet, natural joy rises, and the One starts to taste sweet to the mind. This is the first round — the journey home has begun.
The first round of the wedding is a promise: to live each ordinary day in a good way.
These four verses are the Laavan. They are sung at a Sikh wedding while the couple walks around the Guru Granth Sahib four times. Each round is called a laav. Har pahilarhee laav — the first round. The verses speak about a marriage and, at the same time, about a soul coming close to the One. The wedding is the picture; the teaching is how to belong to the One.
The first teaching is about daily life: parvirtee karam drirh-aa-i-aa — hold firm to your everyday duties. That means not running away from the world, but living in it rightly. Hold to Dharam, right living, and let go of what is wrong. Remember the Name, and turn to the Guru. Think of building a house. The first round is the foundation. Then joy comes, and the One feels sweet to the mind. The round ends: aarambh kaaj rachaa-i-aa — the work has begun.
What is one ordinary daily thing you could do more kindly, as a kind of practice?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI