Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The Guru has lovingly implanted the Word of His Shabad within me. Without His Grace, it cannot be obtained.
Even if you water a poisonous plant with ambrosial nectar a hundred times — it will still bear poisonous fruit.
Gur sabad ropi-aa, prem kar, bin nadar na ho-ay — the Guru has lovingly implanted (ropi-aa — planted, rooted; the agricultural metaphor: something is now growing in the soil of the mind) the Word of His Shabad, with love; without His Grace (nadar), this cannot happen. Ropi-aa is significant: not just taught, not just transmitted, but planted. The Shabad is now a living thing rooted in the mind, able to grow, bear fruit, provide shade.
Visiar boontee amrit seecheeai, sav baar, farhal bikh ho-ay — if you water the poisonous plant (visiar boontee — the poisonous herb, the toxic shrub) with ambrosial nectar (amrit) a hundred times (sav baar), it will still bear poison (farhal bikh) as its fruit. The outer application of the most precious substance in existence cannot change what a plant is at the root. The metaphor is precise: the practice of devotion, the words of the Shabad, the company of the holy — all of these are amrit. But if they are poured onto a root nature that has not been changed by the Guru's Grace (nadar), the fruit is still bitter.
This is why the Guru's Grace is not optional in Mehl 3's theology. It is not that the practice is worthless — amrit is amrit. It is that without the Guru's Grace changing the root nature of the seeker, the surface practice cannot produce the transformation it is designed to produce.
Is there a habit or way of being that you've tried to change many times but keeps reverting — and what might actually need to change at the root?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI