Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Without the One, I have no one to call my own. My soul and my very breath belong to the One.
May my ego and my possessiveness burn. May my greed and my pride go up in flames.
O Nanak — contemplate the Shabad. In it, the Treasure of all Excellence is found.
The closing pauri becomes a prayer — the first person voice of the devotee who has understood everything the ashtapadee has said and now responds with their whole self.
Tis bin mayraa ko nahee jis kaa jee-o paraan — without the One, I have no one who is truly mine. The entire logic of "mine" — dismantled in Pauri 6 — arrives at this: there is only one genuine belonging. My soul belongs to the One. My breath belongs to the One. This cannot be contested or claimed by death.
Haumai mamtaa jal bala-o, lobh jala-o abhimaan — may egotism and possessiveness burn; may greed and pride burn. The prayer uses fire: not the fire of punishment but the purifying fire, the clarifying fire. These four forces — ego (haumai), possessiveness (mamtaa), greed (lobh), pride (abhimaan) — are precisely what maintain the illusion of separation. They are also precisely what was described throughout this ashtapadee as causing the abandonment of the Name, the missing of the crossing, the dying with regret. Burn them, and what remains is the soul that can find the Guru's treasury, board the Guru's boat, receive the Guru's glance.
The closing Nanak line returns to the Shabad: sabad veechaareeai paa-ee-ai gunee nidhaan — contemplating the Shabad, the Treasure of Excellence (gunee nidhaan, the storehouse of all virtues and qualities) is obtained. The ashtapadee that opened with the jewel found in meeting the Guru closes with the same treasure: the Shabad is the Guru's treasury, the boat, the jewel, the crossing, the destination, all at once.
Which of the four — ego, possessiveness, greed, or pride — do you feel most clearly at work in your own life, and what does it cost you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI