What Has No Shape Cannot Be Grabbed, Only Given
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
No shape, no form, no color - the One is beyond the world's three moods entirely.
And only those come to understand Him whom He warms to.
This one says the One has no shape we can grab, so the only way to know the One is as a gift.
Roop na raykh na rang kichh — no form, no outline, no color at all. The One is also beyond the three gunas. The gunas are the three moods that color everything in nature, like the weather of the world. The One stands outside all of it.
Think of every handle the mind uses to hold something. Its shape. Its color. What kind of thing it is. This line takes away every one of those handles.
Then the second line gives the only way in. Tiseh bujhaa-ay naankaa jis hovai suparsan — the One makes understanding come to those the One is pleased with. What cannot be grabbed can be given, the way a friend gives you a present you could never have reached yourself.
This is the start of the sixteenth ashtapadee, a song of eight verses in Sukhmani. From this shapeless ground, it builds to its big teaching. The Naam, the Name, holds up all the worlds. The Name is the bridge between the One no picture can hold and us.
How would you describe something that has no shape, no color and no edges - and could you know it anyway?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI