Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O mind — become Gurmukh. Meditate on the Naam, the Name of the Lord.
Those who are so pre-destined by the Creator are absorbed into the Naam through the Guru's Teachings.
Man gurmukh ho-ay, har naam dhiaa-ay — O mind, become Gurmukh (gurmukh ho-ay — become one oriented toward the Guru) and meditate on the Naam. The rahao addresses the mind directly — the same pattern as Guru Nanak's rahaos but with Guru Amar Das's characteristic emphasis on becoming Gurmukh as the operative instruction. Not just "meditate on the Naam" but "become the kind of person whose orientation makes that meditation genuine." The Gurmukh-ness is what makes the meditation real.
Jin kau poorab likhiaa, tin gur sabad samaa-ay — those who have this written in their destiny from before (poorab likhiaa — written before, pre-destined) are absorbed into the Naam through the Guru's teachings. The poorab likhiaa (pre-destined, written from before) might seem to make the teaching passive — if it's pre-destined, what's the point? But in the GGS, destiny and effort are not opposites. The pre-destined ones are pre-destined precisely because they turn toward the Guru. The destiny is the orientation, not the outcome alone. Grace writes the destiny; the orientation fulfills it.
What does it mean to you that whether you turn toward the teaching might itself be a kind of grace — and how does that change how you try?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI