Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Even those served by 33 million angelic beings, at whose door the Siddhas and Saadhs stand — those who live in wondrous affluence and rule over mountains, oceans, and vast dominions —
O Nanak — in the end, all this vanishes like a dream.
The grandest possible life is still a dream. When you wake, it is gone.
The closing pauri pushes the imagination to the maximum: not just emperors and landlords, but those served by tees kot (33 million) divine beings. The cosmic aristocracy. And even this — sapan bhaee — vanishes like a dream.
The dream metaphor appears here for the first time in Guru Arjan's Siree Raag but will recur. The world is not unreal — it is real as a dream is real while you are in it. The question is what happens when you wake. The Name is what you take with you when you wake.
Have you ever had a dream so vivid that, when you woke, you were momentarily confused about what was real? What does that feel like? And what does it suggest about this waking life?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI