Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In an instant, life appears. In an instant, it is used up. In an instant, you arrive. In an instant, you are gone.
But the one who recognizes the Shabad merges into it — and for them, death has no power.
The Lord cannot be weighed or measured. He cannot be found by talking about Him.
Khin meh upjai khin khapai — in an instant (khin) born, in an instant consumed. The word khin (moment, instant) is repeated four times in the first line. The rapidity is the meditation. Life is not long. Each moment is real but it passes. The question is what you do in the moment that is here now.
The contrast between impermanence and the Shabad is total: everything in the physical world moves in instants. But the one who recognizes the Shabad (sabad pachhaanai) — not merely hears it or recites it but genuinely recognizes it — rav rahai (merges, pervades, remains within it). And for that one, kaal (time/death) does not afflict. Not because they live forever in the body but because they have made the crossing that makes biological death beside the point. (Shabad 107 Pauri 7 said it from the other direction: "dies in the Shabad, never dies again.")
Sahib atul na tolee-ai, kathan na paa-i-aa jaai — the Lord is beyond weighing; cannot be found by talking. This closing is a check on the entire ashtapadee: however beautifully the soul-bride is described, however evocatively the Husband is named, the One remains beyond all description. The Shabad is not the One — it is the way into the One. Words point; they do not arrive.
When you think about how quickly time passes, what does that make you want to do more of — and what does it make you want to let go?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI