Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If understanding hasn't yet dawned in you, it is hard to make sense of things clearly.
How can you praise something you have never seen? You are working a bit in the dark.
Nanak says: recognize the Word, and the Naam comes to live in your heart.
Praise comes alive once the heart has seen for itself.
A short shalok of Guru Amar Das on the difference between second-hand words and first-hand seeing. vin dithaa ki-aa salaahee-ai — how can you praise what you have never seen? anDhaa, 'blind', here means not-yet-seeing — a stage everyone passes through. The resolution is warm: sabad pachhaaneeai naam vasai man aa-ay — when the Word is recognized, the Name settles in the heart and understanding arrives from the inside. The teaching honors direct experience over borrowed opinions — a good thing for a child to hear.
What is something you only understood once you experienced it yourself?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI