Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O dear mind — let yourself be absorbed in love for the Lord. Not distracted love, not occasional love, but the kind that doesn't release you.
A fish lives only in water. Take it out and it dies — quickly, completely. The mind is exactly like this fish. Without the Lord's presence, it flounders. With it, everything is alive.
Drink in the Ambrosial Bani — the Lord's own Word, which is itself a kind of nectar. Let it fill you. When it does, something deep settles: not a temporary feeling but an abiding peace where everything you actually need is already present.
I found the Lord of Excellence, and I cannot stop singing. The True Guru's kindness fulfilled what I had been reaching for all this time. Attached to the hem of His robe, I go where He goes. The nine treasures — everything of value — are already mine. The Name is everything.
The fish-water image
Har jal mil jeevay meenā — "the fish-of-the-mind lives only when immersed in the Water of the Lord." The fish-water image is among the most universal in mystical literature across all traditions. It appears in Rumi: "I am a fish, the water is the ocean of consciousness." It appears in Christian mysticism, in Buddhist literature, in Sufi poetry. Guru Arjan uses it here with absolute directness: the mind is the fish. The Lord is the water. Out of the water, the fish does not struggle — it simply dies. In the water, it is completely and effortlessly alive.
The universality of this image is not coincidence. It points at something that every tradition that has looked closely at the mind has recognized: consciousness, at its root, is not separate from the divine. When it tries to live apart from that source, it dies. When it returns, everything is restored.
The nine treasures
La-ṛh leenay lā'e na-u nidh pā'e — "He has attached me to the hem of His robe, and I have obtained the nine treasures." In Indian tradition, the nava nidhi (nine treasures) represent the complete set of blessings — wealth, food, courage, knowledge, wisdom, beauty, skill, power, and contentment. To receive the nine treasures is shorthand for receiving everything that matters. Guru Arjan says the Lord gives all nine simply by holding the devotee's hand — by attaching them to the hem of His robe.
The image of the robe-hem is of a child holding onto a parent's clothing in a crowd. It says: I am close enough to touch. I go where you go. I will not be lost because I am held.
"The Name is everything to me"
Nā'u sarbas thākur dīnā — "my Lord and Master has given me His Name, which is everything." The ultimate gift is not an experience, not a vision, not a material blessing. It is the Name itself — the practice of the divine's presence, the ongoing relationship. Everything is contained in that.
*When do you feel most fully alive — most like a fish in water? What are the conditions that make that possible?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI