All Hearts Are His; Your Only Job Is Remembrance
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Every heart belongs to the Maker - every single one.
So bow, always. Praise, day and night. Remember with every breath, every bite of food.
Everything happens as He wills; as He wills, people become what they become. He is the play, and He is the player.
Who else could there be to explain it? The ones He gives His Name to, in mercy, are so lucky.
This one says every heart belongs to the One, and our job is simply to remember.
The last verse quietly settles the whole hard song. Sabh ghat tis kay oh karnaihaar — all hearts are His; He is the Creator. All of them: the saint's heart, and the slanderer's too. After seven verses of the hardest list in Sukhmani, the eighth will not leave even the slanderer outside the One's care. Another shabad asks the same wide question: whom can we call bad, when there is no other?
So what should we do after hearing all this? Not keep watch for slanderers. Remember the One even more. Praise day and night. Tiseh dhi-aavahu saas giraas — think of the One with every breath and every bite. Saas is breath, and giraas is a mouthful of food. It is the tradition's way of saying all the time.
Apnaa khayl aap karnaihaar — the Maker is the play and the player. Everything fits inside it: saint, slanderer, slander, and rescue, all in one great show. Sukhmani uses this picture of a play in another set of eight verses too. Think of one person writing, directing, and acting every part in a school play.
The reader who came looking for enemies leaves with one job. It is to become one of the lucky ones who are given the Name. Jis no kirpaa karai tis aapan naam day-ay — to those the One shows mercy, the One gives His own Name. The rest was never our business.
After hearing about the worst way to live, what is the best protection against becoming it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI