Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The Lord of the Universe is my Sweet Beloved.
He is sweeter than my mother or father.
Among all sisters and brothers and friends — there is no one like You.
Har jagad-ees-u meri-aa pirh-u meethaa — the Lord of the Universe (har jagad-ees-u — the Lord of the world) is my Sweet Beloved (pirh-u meethaa — my beloved husband/love who is sweet). The intimate register of Guru Arjan: not the distant Lord of law and justice but pirh-u meethaa — my sweet love. The divine as the most intimate relationship.
Maat pitaa bhaai-aa than meethaa, bhain mitat-r na ko-ee — sweeter than mother (maat), father (pitaa), brother (bhaai-aa) — sweeter than all of them; among sisters (bhain) and friends (mitat-r) — there is no one (na ko-ee) like You. The escalating comparison: sweeter than the person who gave you life (mother), than the person who protected and provided (father), than siblings, than friends. The Lord is sweeter than all of these together.
This is not a rejection of family love. It is a placing of the divine love in relation to all human loves and saying: the same quality that makes those loves sweet, in their highest expression — that quality in its pure and infinite form is the Lord. The sweetness you know in your mother's care is a partial and temporal expression of the Lord's sweetness, which is total and eternal.
Who or what has been the sweetest relationship in your life — the one that has given you the most genuine comfort and joy? What makes something truly sweet?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI