Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Some people say the One is close by; others say it's far, far away.
But arguing about that is as silly as saying a fish climbed out of the water and up a tree.
The Bhagat section of Todee opens with Naam Dayv — a cotton-printer by trade, one of the low-caste saints whose voice the Gurus honored in the scripture. He starts with a wonderfully down-to-earth joke: debating whether the One is 'near' or 'far' is like claiming a fish went tree-climbing — a category error, a nonsense question. Near and far are distances, and the One isn't at a distance from anything; it's the water the fish is already swimming in. You can't be 'far' from what you're made of and floating in. Naam Dayv punctures a whole tradition of theological argument with a single silly image.
If something is all around you and inside you, does it even make sense to ask how 'far away' it is?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI