Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Whom shall I serve? What shall I chant? Everyone in the world came from the One and will merge back into the One.
Those who are attached to Maya do not find God — even if they chant with their mouth.
God Himself is the cause of all causes. Everything is in His hands.
The opening question — kissu sevee kissu jaacha-o — is the existential starting point of spiritual practice: Who do I serve? What do I ask for? The answer: everything came from the One and returns to the One, so the serving and the asking must ultimately be directed at the One.
"Chanting with the mouth" without the heart attached — this is the critique of empty ritual that runs through all of Gurbani. The mouth says the words; the mind is elsewhere. This produces no result because the chanting is not the channel for anything real.
What do you most often ask for — from life, from people, from whatever higher power you believe in? Is what you're asking for what you actually most need?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI