Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who are absorbed in the Shabad become clean and pure — not by fighting their impulses, but because the Shabad itself washes away desire, anger, and pride.
They keep the Name on their lips and the One in their hearts, always.
How could we ever forget the One who holds all of us up? The One who is the ground beneath every living being?
The five impulses that pull the soul away from the divine — kaam (lust/craving), krodh (anger), lobh (greed), moh (attachment), ahankaar (ego) — are known in Sikh teaching as the five thieves. Here Guru Nanak names three: kaam, krodh, ahankaar. Significantly, he does not say those attuned to the Shabad fight these forces — he says they taj (let go, abandon) them. The distinction matters: fighting requires effort and often strengthens what it fights by giving it attention. The Shabad transforms. What was clung to simply drops.
Sabh jeeaa kaa aadhaar — the Support (aadhaar) of all living beings (jeeaa). The closing line widens from the individual soul to all of creation. The forgetting of the One is not just a personal loss — it is forgetting the actual ground on which everything stands. The question "how could we ever forget?" resonates differently when you realize what is being forgotten: not merely an idea of God, but the underlying support of every life that exists.
For the children: this pauri makes a quiet but important point. You don't transform yourself by effort. The Shabad does it. Your work is to stay with the Shabad.
What in your life has changed on its own, without effort, because something deeper shifted inside you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI