Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Everyone praises themselves. Everyone considers themselves the greatest.
But without the Guru, you cannot truly know yourself. All the talking and listening in the world — what does it actually accomplish?
O Nanak — the one who has realized the Shabad no longer needs to claim greatness. The ego has no more work to do.
The closing pauri makes the full circle. The ashtapadee opened with "listen, O confused mind." It closes with the observation that self-praise is universal — everyone considers themselves the greatest — and the prescription: without the Guru, no one truly knows themselves.
This is not false modesty. It is a structural point: the ego cannot see itself clearly because it is both the observer and the observed. It is the eye trying to see itself. The Guru is the mirror — the one whose clear sight can reflect back what the ego cannot see about itself.
Kahay sunay ki-aa ho-ay (by merely speaking and listening, what is accomplished?) — this question echoes across Guru Nanak's compositions. The performance of spiritual life — the debates, the recitations, the arguments — without the interior transformation, produces nothing. This is not anti-intellectual; it is anti-performative. The intellect genuinely in service of the Shabad is celebrated throughout Gurbani. The intellect performing cleverness for its own sake is what is empty.
The Nanak closing line brings it home: haumai karai na ko-ay — the one who has realized the Shabad acts without ego. Not because they are trying hard not to act with ego. Because the ego that would generate the egotistic action has been dissolved in the Shabad. The cure is complete. The ashtapadee that began by addressing the wandering mind ends with the mind that has nowhere left to wander.
Where do you notice yourself needing others to recognize your greatness — and what would it feel like if that need simply dissolved?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI