Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Beautiful are the faces of the Gurmukhs who bear love and affection for the Guru.
Through true devotional worship, they are attuned to Truth. At the True Door, they are found to be true.
Blessed is their coming into being. They redeem all their ancestors.
Gurmukh mukh sobhaa sohnee, gur preet piaar — beautiful (sobhaa sohnee — radiant, lovely) are the faces of the Gurmukhs who bear love and affection (preet piaar — both words for love, doubled to convey the depth) for the Guru. The beauty of the Gurmukh's face is the outer expression of the inner transformation: the green tree gives shade and its leaves are beautiful; the soul-bird pecking Truth is well-fed and her feathers are bright. Beauty as the byproduct of genuine orientation.
Sachee bhagat kar saach raat-ay, sach-ay dar sach-iaar — through true devotional worship (sachee bhagat), they are attuned to Truth (saach raat-ay — dyed in Truth, the color metaphor again); at the True Door (sachay dar), they are found to be true (sachiaar). Sachiaar is one of the most important words in the GGS — the genuinely true one, the one who is real, the one who is found genuine when tested. At the True Door, the test is: are you true? The Gurmukh, having been dyed in Truth through true devotion, is found true when the Door is reached.
Dhan dhann janamnaa, s-e kul udharai — blessed, blessed (dhan dhann — blessed, blessed — the doubling expressing overflowing gratitude) is their coming into being; they redeem all their ancestors (kul udharai — uplift/redeem their entire lineage). One Gurmukh redeems their entire family line — their ancestors and descendants — through the radiance that flows from genuine devotion. Not metaphorically: the effect of one genuinely transformed life ripples through those connected to it.
Has anyone in your family or community — someone truly oriented toward what is good — had a ripple effect on the people around them? How?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI