The Deepest Bonds Are Robes the One Delights to Wear
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When His glory was gathered entirely inside Himself - who was a mother then? A father? A friend, a child, a brother or sister?
When all power and all knowing lay folded within Him - where were the scriptures? Who was there to read them?
When He held everything in His own heart - who checked whether the day was lucky or unlucky?
When He Himself was the height and He Himself the nearness - who was called master, and who disciple? We are wonder-struck at His wondrous wonder. Only He knows what He is.
Even our closest bonds, mother, father, friend, are like costumes the One loves to wear.
This is the gentlest round of questions. Tab kavan maa-ay baap mitar sut bhaa-ee — then who was mother, father, friend, child, or sibling? The bonds that feel deepest also belong to the play. That does not make them small. The One chose to wear exactly these costumes, being a mother, being a friend, and He delights in them. Think of a parent who dresses up for a school play and loves every minute of it. And no soul is ever truly left alone when the costumes change, because the One who wore them stays.
Next the holy books fall quiet. Tah bayd katayb kahaa ko-oo cheen — where were the Vedas and the katayb, the books of the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faiths, and who read them? With no second one to tell, knowing needed no book. Ashtapadee 16 said that what is made cannot measure its Maker. This is the same truth seen from the other side.
Lucky and unlucky days go too. Ta-o sagan apasgan kahaa beechaarai — who checked for good or bad omens? Before time there was no calendar. Baarah Maaha, the Guru's song of the twelve months, says the same: grace matters, not the calendar.
Even master and student come after the One. Tah ka-un thaakur ka-un kahee-ai chayraa — who was master, and who disciple? Sukhmani itself celebrates the Guru and the learner. Yet, as Ashtapadee 12 says, the One teaches and the One learns.
The verse leaves through a door past words. Bisman bisam rahay bismaad — we are struck with wonder at the wondrous wonder. Wonder is the one way of knowing that survives the trip back.
If the love in your family is the One loving Himself through those costumes, what happens to that love when a costume is set down?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI