Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O mind — how do you expect to be free without love? Love is the only way through.
The One pervades within the Gurmukh — fully present, saturating everything. The Gurmukh is blessed with the treasure of devotion.
Ki-o chhooteh bin pi-aar — how can you be saved without love? The question is rhetorical but not dismissive — it is an honest challenge to all spiritual practice that tries to bypass love. Ritual without love doesn't free you. Knowledge without love doesn't free you. Austerity without love doesn't free you. Love is not the reward at the end of practice; it is the substance of practice itself.
Gurmukh anthar rav rahi-aa — God pervades within the Gurmukh. The word rav rahi-aa means pervades, saturates, is completely present throughout. This is exactly what water does to the lotus, what water is to the fish, what the rain is to the chatrik, what water does when mixed into milk — all the metaphors in this ashtapadee are images of this one reality: rav rahi-aa, the divine pervading, saturating, being fully present in the soul that has love.
Bakhsay bhagat bhandaar — blessed with the treasure of devotion. Bhandaar (treasury) — the same word as the Guru's treasury in the previous ashtapadees. The treasury of devotion (bhagat): everything that love carries — peace, wisdom, union, liberation. The Gurmukh doesn't seek each of these separately; they receive the treasury of devotion and everything is in it.
What is something you have tried to achieve through effort and calculation alone — and what changed when love was actually involved?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI