Sikhism·Raag Sorath·Shabad 149
Verse 12 of 87

How Do We Reach the One Beyond All Reach

ਪਉੜੀ ॥
pa-orhee.
Pauree:
ਸੋ ਹਰਿ ਪੁਰਖੁ ਅਗੰਮੁ ਹੈ ਕਹੁ ਕਿਤੁ ਬਿਧਿ ਪਾਈਐ ॥
so har purakh agamm hai kaho kit biDh paa-ee-ai.
The Lord God is inaccessible; tell me, how can we find Him?
ਤਿਸੁ ਰੂਪੁ ਨ ਰੇਖ ਅਦ੍ਰਿਸਟੁ ਕਹੁ ਜਨ ਕਿਉ ਧਿਆਈਐ ॥
tis roop na raykh adrist kaho jan ki-o Dhi-aa-ee-ai.
He has no form or feature, and He cannot be seen; tell me, how can we meditate on Him?
ਨਿਰੰਕਾਰੁ ਨਿਰੰਜਨੁ ਹਰਿ ਅਗਮੁ ਕਿਆ ਕਹਿ ਗੁਣ ਗਾਈਐ ॥
nirankaar niranjan har agam ki-aa kahi gun gaa-ee-ai.
The Lord is formless, immaculate and inaccessible; which of His Virtues should we speak of and sing?
ਜਿਸੁ ਆਪਿ ਬੁਝਾਏ ਆਪਿ ਸੁ ਹਰਿ ਮਾਰਗਿ ਪਾਈਐ ॥
jis aap bujhaa-ay aap so har maarag paa-ee-ai.
They alone walk on the Lord's Path, whom the Lord Himself instructs.
ਗੁਰਿ ਪੂਰੈ ਵੇਖਾਲਿਆ ਗੁਰ ਸੇਵਾ ਪਾਈਐ ॥੪॥
gur poorai vaykhaali-aa gur sayvaa paa-ee-ai. ||4||
The Perfect Guru has revealed Him to me; serving the Guru, He is found. ||4||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

The One is beyond our reach — so tell me, how could we ever find it?

It has no shape, no outline, nothing our eyes can catch — so how would we even hold it in mind?

Formless, spotless, past all grasping — which of its endless qualities could we even begin to sing?

And yet: the ones the One awakens are the very ones who find the path.

The teaching itself shows it to you — it is met by walking the way it points.

What is beyond reach is not seized — it is revealed, when you become open enough to see.
The deeper layer

A Pauri of Guru Ram Das built as a set of honest questions. so har purakh agamm hai — the One is agamm, unreachable by ordinary means; it has no roop na raykh (form or feature). The questions are real, not rhetorical, and the answer is not a technique but an opening: jis aap bujhaa-ay aap — the One reveals itself to the heart it awakens, and gur poorai vaykhaali-aa — the teaching makes it visible. This matches the project's lens on Gurprasad: the formless is not found by climbing up to it, but by becoming open enough to notice it revealing itself.

A Question to Sit With

Is there something real that you can feel or know even though you can't see it or hold it?

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

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