Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I ask the Guru what to do, and then I actually do it. That is the whole practice.
When the Shabad settles into the mind, the ego's ache burns away — not by force, but naturally.
Then something shifts on its own. Without effort, we find ourselves united with the One — the most real thing there is.
Gur puchhao aapnay, gur puchh kaar kamaa-o — I ask my Guru, I act on what the Guru says. The simplicity is almost startling: the practice is not complicated. Ask. Then do. The failure is almost always in the second step — the asking without the doing, the knowing without the living.
Sahaj (intuitive ease, effortless equilibrium) — the union here is sehjay (naturally, effortlessly). It is not forced or achieved through violent suppression of the ego. The Shabads of Praise, abiding in the mind, burn away the ego's pain — jal jaao (burnt away) — and in that burning, the natural union reveals itself. The ego was the obstacle; without it, what remains is already united.
This is the movement from practice to arrival: practice (asking the Guru, dwelling in the Shabad) creates the conditions; the burning happens naturally; the union is what remains. Not three separate steps — one continuous dissolving.
The phrase saachay saach milaa-o (we meet the Truest of the True) uses sach twice — the superlative of reality, the most real thing encountering the most real thing. When the ego has burnt away, what meets the divine is the soul's own deepest nature — which was always already the same.
Is there guidance you have received that you have not yet acted on — and what is the one step you could take today?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI