Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You cannot get the True Guru's company by trying to physically be near Him or far from Him. That is not how it works.
You meet the True Guru when your mind genuinely stays in His presence — when you are actually there, not just physically in the same room.
Presence as interior, not physical
Sant janā dā melu na ho'e iun, jin nēṛai tin dūri — "The Society of the Guru is not obtained like this, by trying to be near or far away." Guru Amar Das makes a point that recurs across the Vaar: proximity to the Guru is interior, not spatial. Someone can sit in the Guru's physical presence and be mentally miles away. Someone can be physically far away and be genuinely present in the Guru's teaching.
Nānak nāl ha'e sacchā gur, man rahay hājūri — "O Nanak, you shall meet the True Guru if your mind remains in His Presence." The condition for meeting is man rahay hājūri — "the mind remaining in the Presence." Not the body. The mind.
This is a teaching about attention and orientation. The Guru is accessed through the mind that is actually attending — that is genuinely turned toward the teaching rather than physically present but mentally elsewhere. This is why the Shabad (the Guru's Word as living teaching) is the essential vehicle: the Shabad is accessible to the mind wherever it is.
*Think of a conversation where someone was physically present but mentally absent. Now think of one where they were fully there. What made the difference — and which felt like an actual meeting?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI