Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The day shall pass away, and the sun shall pass away.
The night shall pass away, and the moon shall pass away. The hundreds of thousands of stars shall disappear.
He alone is permanent. Nanak speaks the Truth.
This line says: the sun, the moon and all the stars will pass away. Only the One lasts, and that is the truth.
The song has kept widening, like ripples in a pond. It began with our resting places. Then came the holy people and the kings. Then the sky and the earth. Now it reaches the biggest things we can see.
Din rav chalai: the day and the rav, the sun, will pass. Nis sas chalai: the night and the sas, the moon, will pass. Taarikaa lakh palo-ay: hundreds of thousands of stars will fade away.
Think of the sun that rises every single morning, and the moon people used for their calendars. Think of the stars sailors and shepherds followed at night. Even they belong to the things that pass.
Mukaam ohee ayk hai: only the One lasts. Naankaa sach bugo-ay: Nanak speaks the truth.
This takes us back to the first words of the Guru Granth Sahib: Ik Oankaar, "There is One." When everything else has moved on, what is left? The One, always was, always is, always will be.
That is not a sad ending. It is a safe one. The One who holds everything is not going anywhere.
If you could only say one true thing that you knew would last — what would it be?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI