Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O dear mind — make your home in the company of those who are genuinely seeking the Lord. Not occasionally, not when convenient. Let it be where you actually live.
When the Name is kept alive there, something lights up inside — not a mood that comes and goes, but a genuine inner light.
The Lord is easily found when the heart turns genuinely toward Him. Everything the heart truly needs gets fulfilled. And the meeting feels like a reunion — because the soul and the Lord were never truly separate, only distant. Inside and outside, He was always there.
Now you know it. And you believe it.
"Abide in the Society of the Saints"
Kar santā sang nivāso — "let the Saadh Sangat be your dwelling." The instruction is not just to visit the Saints, or to attend Sangat occasionally. The word nivāso is "dwelling, abode, home" — the place you actually live. The Saints' company is not an activity to schedule. It is the environment in which genuine transformation becomes possible.
The Lord as Srīrang — the Beautiful One
Purbay kamā'e srīrang pā'e — "by past actions, I found the Lord, the Greatest Lover." The divine here is named Srīrang — a name associated with beauty, radiance, and irresistible attractiveness. The word draws from the Sanskrit śrī (auspicious radiance) and ranga (color, hue). The divine is not merely good or powerful — He is beautiful, and His beauty draws the soul to itself. The accumulated good karma of the devotee creates the conditions in which this beauty is finally recognized.
"Separated for so long, united again"
Chiree vichhunni'ā — "separated for such a long time." The reunion carries within it the weight of the separation. This is the bhakti sensibility at its most honest: the joy of the meeting is proportional to the pain of the wandering. Guru Arjan does not minimize the length or the ache of the separation. He lets it be part of the joy of the reunion.
Faith that wells up
Man upji'ā bisū'āso — "faith has welled up within my mind." Not faith imposed from outside, not faith as a decision made through an act of will. Faith as something that wells up — rises from within, like water from a spring, when the presence is genuinely felt. This is not a belief chosen. It is a recognition arrived at.
*Think of the people in your life in whose presence you feel most genuine, most alive, most yourself. What makes that company different from other company?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI