Salok Mehlaa 9, Salok 13 — the calm at the center
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Someone who is not shaken by pleasure or pain, greed, clinging or pride —
Nanak says: listen, O mind, that person is the very image of the One.
A person who stays calm through good and bad shows us what the One looks like.
sukh dukh jih parsai nahee — pleasure and pain do not shake them. Nor do lobh, greed, moh, clinging, or abhimaan, pride. kaho naanak sun ray manaa — Nanak says, listen, my mind. so moorat bhagvaan — such a person is the very image of the One.
Think of a lighthouse in a storm. Waves crash, but the light keeps shining. That calm is sahaj, a deep, natural steadiness. It is not feeling nothing. It is being rooted in something that cannot be shaken.
This salok, by Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru, starts a run of verses about the free person.
What is one thing that easily puffs you up or knocks you down? What might steady you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI