The Creature Can't Witness the Creator's Origin
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
His play has no boundary line - the searchers of the ages wore themselves out looking for one.
Can a son ever know his own father's birth? And every one of us is threaded on His string.
To some He gives good sense, wisdom, meditation - His rememberers. Others He lets wander the three weathers, circling in and out, over and over.
The high places are His; so are the low ones. As He gives Himself to be known - exactly so, He is known.
This one says no creature can see where the Creator began, and yet all of us are joined to the Creator.
The best line is a question. Pitaa kaa janam ke jaanai poot — what does a son know of his father's birth? A child arrives later. Everything before the child was born is something the child is told, never something the child remembers.
So it is simply impossible for anything made to see how its Maker began. What is made always comes after. This one picture says what whole libraries try to say. And a ten-year-old can carry it for life.
Right beside it comes the string. Sagal paro-ee apunai soot — all are strung on the One's own thread, like beads on a necklace. We cannot see where the thread began. And we are never off it.
The middle of the verse is honest. The One gives some people good sense, wisdom, and quiet focus on the Name. Others wander in the three moods of nature and keep coming and going. The verse does not pretend this is easy to understand.
It ends where Sukhmani always ends. Jaisaa janaavai taisaa naanak jaan — as the One lets us know, so we know. Even our knowing is a gift.
What existed before you were born? How do you know? What does that tell you about the limits of anyone's knowing?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI