Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
That Primal Being — the source of everything — is immaculate. Untouched. Pure. Unreachable in the sense that nothing we do can diminish it or add to it. Infinite in every direction.
All living beings are Yours. Every single one. You are the giver of souls — the one from whom every living thing receives its capacity to be alive.
So meditate on the Lord, O Saints. It is the one that dissolves all sorrow.
And here is the deepest thing: the Lord itself is the Master, and the Lord itself is the Servant. What can any of us be, in comparison?
So Purakh (That Primal Being) is the second of the named banis in the Rehras Sahib (evening prayer). Where So Dar asked "where is the door?" and answered with the entire universe singing — So Purakh goes directly into what that being is.
The phrase "the Lord Himself is the Master, the Lord Himself is the Servant" is profoundly non-dualistic. In any system with a separate God and a separate creation, there is a Master who gives and servants who receive. Here, the same oneness is in both roles. The distinction collapses. This is Ik Onkar — not one among many, but the only thing that actually is.
Guru Ram Das (the Fourth Guru) composed So Purakh. It is recited every evening as part of the Rehras, the prayer that closes the day — a return to the source at the end of activity.
When you imagine the source of everything — what does it feel like? Does it feel like something separate from you, or like something you are inside of?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI