Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The Essence of the Ambrosial Naam is the most sublime essence. How can I get to taste this essence?
I go and ask the happy soul-brides: 'How did you come to meet God?'
They are care-free and do not speak. So I massage and wash their feet.
One of the most touching images in Guru Ram Das's Siree Raag: the earnest seeker going to the happy soul-brides — those who have found union with the divine — and asking how they got there. And when they are too care-free, too absorbed in their joy to explain, he does not leave in frustration. He washes their feet.
The foot-washing is the sevā of the sincere student: I cannot force an explanation from you, but I can serve you, and perhaps through serving you I will understand something of what you have found.
This is the humility that makes the receiving possible. The seeker is not demanding knowledge — he is offering service.
Have you ever learned more from being in someone's presence and serving them than you could have from anything they told you? What was that like?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI