Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Meditate on the Lord with every breath. With every bite of food.
The Gurmukhs embrace the Lord's Love in their minds. They are always in the Lord's Name — always, not occasionally.
The Vanajaaraa's closing instruction
The final refrain of the Vanajaaraa section brings everything down to its simplest expression: sās sās har simaro, ann jal khā'ie — "meditate on the Lord with every breath and every morsel of food."
Every breath. Every bite. The ideal of continuous awareness. Not meditation as a scheduled activity, not meditation as a retreat or a practice session — meditation as the permanent background of everything. The breath that keeps the body alive and the food that sustains it become the same reminders: the Lord is here, the Lord provides, the Lord is what I am living on.
The Gurmukhs who are continually occupied
Gurmukh man prīt lagā'e har nāmi nāmi laggay — "the Gurmukhs embrace the Love of the Lord in their minds; they are continually occupied with the Lord's Name." Not intermittently. Not when it is convenient. Laggay means "attached to," "occupied with," "absorbed in." The Gurmukh's natural state is this continuous occupation. The merchant has arrived at the destination and merged with the trade itself.
This closes the Vanajaaraa section. After six stanzas and six refrains building the merchant metaphor, the final refrain leaves us here: every breath, every bite, always.
*What would it actually look like to be 'always' in something — not just practicing it, but living in it? Is there anything in your life you approach that way already?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI