Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O mind — embrace love for the Lord.
By great good fortune, the Guru is found. And through the Guru's Shabad — His Word, His teaching — you are carried across to the other side.
The Shabad as the vessel
Gur shabad tare pār — "through the Word of the Guru's Shabad, we are carried across to the other side." The image is crossing a terrifying ocean or river — the world as a body of water that must be traversed. The Shabad is the boat. Not the Guru as a physical person, not a ritual, not an institution — the Word itself, internalized and lived.
This is one of the Vaar's consistent theological positions: the Shabad (the living Word, the teaching as experienced from within) is the means of crossing. Everything else — ceremony, pilgrimage, scholarship — is a preparation or a pointing. The crossing itself happens through the Word.
"Embrace love for the Lord"
Man pi'ār kar hariā — "O mind, embrace love for the Lord." The instruction is affective before it is behavioral. Before the practices, before the disciplines, before the crossing — love. The love is the motivation that makes the Shabad accessible. The Shabad works on a mind that loves. On a mind that is merely performing — it glances off.
*What is something you do consistently not because you have to but because you genuinely love it? What is the difference between doing that and doing something you only do out of obligation?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI