Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
True is His Empire. True is His Command. True is His Seat of True Authority.
True is the Creative Power which He has created. True is the world which He has fashioned.
O Nanak — chant the True Name. I am forever and ever a sacrifice to Him.
Guru Arjan ends by saying everything about the One is true, and so is the world He made.
Sach paatisaahee amar sach means His kingdom is true, and His command is true. Sachay sachaa thaan means the True One's seat is true. The word sach, true, comes again and again. Everything the One rules and orders is true, because the One is Truth itself.
Sach sirji-on jahaan means He made the world true. The world is not fake. It is true because the One who made it is True. The trouble is not that the world is unreal. The trouble is when people treat it as the most important thing of all, instead of as something the One made.
Think of a drawing a friend made for you. The drawing is real and precious. But it points back to the friend who made it.
Guru Arjan's Siree Raag hymns started by asking why we get so carried away by family and things. Here they come to rest on this: the world is true, held inside the One's Truth. Naanak japee-ai sach naam means O Nanak, repeat the True Name.
If the world is true because the True One made it, how does that change how you see it? What becomes more precious? What becomes less of a trap?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI