Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
All do their deeds under the Lord's Glance of Grace. No one is beyond His Vision.
According to the Glance of Grace with which the True Lord beholds us — so do we become.
O Nanak, the Glorious Greatness of the Name of the Lord is received only by His Mercy.
Sabh nadar karay jee-an kau, ko baahar naahi — all beings do their deeds under the Lord's Glance of Grace (nadar); no one is outside (baahar naahi) His Vision. The Glance of Grace encompasses everyone — not just the Gurmukhs, not just the devoted. The manmukhs wandering in all directions are also within the Glance. Ko baahar naahi — no exceptions. The divine's vision is total.
Ji-o nadar kar-ay ti-o hohai, saachay naaeh — according to the Glance with which the True Lord looks upon us, so do we become (ti-o hohai — in that way, thus we become). This is the most theologically concentrated statement in the ashtapadee: we become what His Glance makes us. The Gurmukh's radiant face (Pauri 7) is the face that has been made beautiful by a certain kind of Glance. The grace that transforms is in the quality of the divine's attention.
Naanak naam vadi-aa-ee, kirpaa man vaahi — O Nanak, the Glorious Greatness of the Naam is received only by His Mercy (kirpaa — mercy, compassion, grace). Man vaahi — it enters and resides within the mind. Everything in the ashtapadee has been building to this: the soul-bird, the green tree, the hukam — all within the frame of the divine's Glance of Grace. And the Naam itself — the Treasure, the Fruit, the transformation — comes only when His Mercy touches the mind.
If you genuinely believed that how you are becoming is shaped by how the divine sees you — how would that change how you hold yourself?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI