Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
What if I punished my body in the hardest way, as an offering?
What if I gave my body and mind to it, night and day?
What if I did millions and millions of rituals? Still, none of it would be equal to the Name of the Lord.
Guru Nanak says that even the hardest things people do to their bodies for religion cannot match the Name.
He gives a list of the most extreme things people once did to seem holy. Punishing the body as an offering. Doing it night and day. Lakh kotee karam kamaa-ay means doing hundreds of thousands, even millions, of religious deeds. Each step looks more extreme and more holy than the last.
Then comes the answer. Har naamai tul na puj-ee means none of it comes close to the Name of the Lord.
He is not making fun of effort. He is being exact. These hard practices were some of the most serious ways people searched. But they are on a different level from the Name. They are things a person does. The Name is something the One gives, and it lands through grace, like the arrow in the first verse. No amount of doing can take the place of that gift.
Think of trying to earn a hug by doing a hundred push-ups. The hug was never something you earn. It is given.
Guru Nanak also speaks as "I." He is not standing above everyone else. He looked at these paths from inside his own search and said what he found. The Guru is not asking anyone to hurt their body. He is saying it does not bring you closer.
Is there something you have tried hard and done extensively that still left you feeling something was missing — and what do you think that missing thing was?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI