Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
There is only One. And the One is found by the True Guru's grace — a gift that is always here, waiting for an open heart.
Let awe of You be the thing I get lost in, and my awareness the pouch that carries it — I've become a hermit drunk on that.
My two hands are my begging bowl, and I am so hungry just to see You. Day after day I beg at Your door.
Guru Nanak takes the picture of a wandering hermit and fills it with something better.
Some hermits of his time wandered with a pouch of bhaang, a drug made from the hemp plant, and a begging bowl. Nanak swaps each thing for something inside. His bha-o, his awe of the One, is what fills him. His own mind is the pouch that holds it. Kar kaasaa darsan kee bhookh — my hands are my bowl, and I am hungry to see You. Darsan means seeing the Beloved.
Nanak isn't praising the drug. He is saying awe is the only thing worth being filled with. Think of a child seeing the ocean for the first time, just staring. Nothing else is needed. That wonder is enough.
You don't need the hermit's pouch or bowl. Awe and longing are the real filling and the real asking. Mai dar maaga-o neetaa neet — I ask at Your door, day after day.
What fills you with a 'wonder' so deep it's a kind of intoxication? What are you truly hungry to see?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI