Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
There is only one Creator — and only one place where things truly get sorted out. One Court.
The One Lord's command is the only one that actually runs everything. Put that One in your mind.
Without that Lord, there is nothing else. Let go of fear, doubt, and dread.
Praise the Lord who protects you — from inside your home and outside it, everywhere.
When He becomes merciful and you come to chant His Name — you swim across the ocean of fear.
Ik Onkar applied
The first Pauree of the Vaar opens with a statement of Ik Onkar — One Creator, One Court — as the structural claim on which everything else rests. Har ikko kartā, Har ik dar vartai — "the Lord alone is the One Creator; there is only the One Court of the Lord."
This is not a philosophical argument. It is the Vaar's founding premise, stated at the outset: there is not a hierarchy of courts, not competing powers, not a political structure where you need to know the right people. One Creator. One Court. One Command. Everything flows from this.
"Remove your fear, doubt, and dread"
Bhau bharam ṭau uṭhā'o — "remove your fear, doubt, and dread." Having established that there is only One Court and One Command, the practical instruction follows: fear is structurally unwarranted. If the only power is the one that made you and sustains you and whose Command runs everything — what is there to fear? Fear arises from the belief that some other power can harm you in some way the Lord has not ordained.
"Swims across the ocean of fear"
Bhav sāgar tare — "swims across the ocean of fear." The ocean of fear (bhav sāgar) is the terrifying world-ocean that appears throughout Siree Raag. Here the means of crossing is explicitly: the Lord's mercy + coming to chant the Name. Two things together: grace from the divine side, turning from the human side.
*What would it feel like to genuinely believe there is only one real power at work in everything — and that that power is on your side?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI