Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The soul-bride who is full of goodness gives off goodness. The one without it is sad and restless.
If you long for your Beloved Lord, dear soul, know this: He is not met through what is false.
No boat and no raft can take you to Him. Your Beloved Lord feels far away.
Guru Nanak says the soul is like a bride, and the One is her Beloved. Goodness is what brings them close.
This bride image runs all through Gurbani. The soul is the bride. The One is the Husband Lord. It is not about boys or girls. It is a picture of how a small person relates to the endless One.
Gunvantee gun veethrai means the bride full of goodness gives off goodness. Her goodness is not about never making mistakes. It means she carries the inner qualities that line up with truth. A-ugunvantee jhoor: the one without them is sad and restless. That sadness is not a punishment. It comes from facing away from her own deepest self.
Think of a plant turned away from the window. Nobody is punishing it. It just is not facing the light.
Naa bayrhee naa tulharhaa means no boat and no raft can get you there. No clever trick of ours reaches the One. Later in this same shabad (a shabad is one hymn), Guru Nanak turns this around: the Guru is the boat. Only the Guru's grace is the raft that carries us.
Is there something you've been trying to reach through external means — through buying something, achieving something, impressing someone — that might actually be found inside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI