Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You pervade the sky above and the depths below. You fill all three worlds.
You are the very devotion — and You are the One who unites. You are both the longing and the meeting.
O Nanak — may I never forget the Name. As is Your pleasure, so is Your will.
Aakaasee paataal toon, tribhavan rahi-aa samaa-ay — You pervade the sky (aakash), the nether regions (patal), and the three worlds. The spatial comprehensiveness echoes Japji Sahib's vision: not a God who dwells somewhere specific, but the One who saturates all of space and all of existence. Sky and depths, high and low, above and below — no location is outside the divine presence.
Aapay bhagtee bhaao toon, aapay mileh milaa-ay — You Yourself are bhakti (devotional love), You Yourself are love (bhaao), and You Yourself unite and cause union. This is the most theologically complete line of the ashtapadee: the divine is not only the object of devotion but the devotion itself. Not only the destination of the journey but the journey. Not only the one who causes union but the union itself. When a person loves the divine, the divine is loving Itself through them. When a soul seeks union, the divine is seeking Itself. There is only One — and the Oneness includes the devotion, the devotee, and the Beloved all at once.
Naanak naam na veesrai, ji-o bhaavai tivai rajaa-ay — O Nanak, may I never forget the Name; as is Your pleasure, so is Your will. The closing prayer is quieter than Pauri 8's instruction. "As is Your pleasure, so is Your will." Not resignation — acceptance. The will of the One who pervades sky and depths and all three worlds, who is both the devotion and the devout, both the love and the lover — that will is what I am aligning with. As it pleases You.
What if the longing you feel for the divine is itself the divine longing for Itself through you — and how would that change how you hold that longing?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI