Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One loves those who love back, and is a true friend to them.
Here is a beautiful secret: love holds the One the way a musician holds an instrument — gently, closely, tuned to each other. The love does the holding.
Those who keep the One in their hearts love the Beloved with everything they have. Please, they pray, let your kindness fall like rain over the whole world.
When you praise a loving heart, you are really praising the One shining through it — the two have become one and the same.
Keep me in your care, they ask, for I belong to you.
This Shalok (Mehl 4) contains one of Gurbani's most tender reversals: har daasan kai vas hai, ji-o jantee kai vas jant — the Lord is "under the control" of the loving, "like an instrument in the hands of the musician." It is not that love controls the divine, but that love and the divine become inseparable, responsive to each other. The climax — har har jan ik samaan, "the Lord and the loving servant are one and the same" — is pure Ik Onkar: no real distance between the lover and the Loved. The prayer sabh jag meh varsai mayhu asks grace for the whole world, not just the singer.
What does it mean that a musician and their instrument seem to "become one" when they play? Can you think of a time you were so absorbed in something you loved that you forgot you were separate from it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI