Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The Beloved is the greatest of all, beyond every rank.
It sets the worth of everything, and is itself the scale and the weights.
It cannot be weighed by anything else — it weighs its own self — and to that One I give my whole heart.
Nothing is big enough to measure the One, so the One is its own measure.
Guru Ram Das uses the picture of a shop scale. The One sets the worth of everything. The One is the scale, and the weights too. The shabad just before this one used the same scale picture.
Then comes the surprise. Aapay atul tulaa-idaa — the One cannot be weighed, and weighs its own self. Try to measure the ocean with a teacup. Nothing outside the One is large enough to be the ruler, so the One is the ruler.
After all that greatness, the shabad ends in plain love. Jan naanak sad kurbaan — servant Nanak gives his whole heart to that One, always. The big ideas settle into a full heart.
What's something so big or important that no ordinary measurement fits it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI