Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Complete is His wisdom, and His glance is nectar - one look from Him, and worlds are carried.
His feet are beauty past comparing; His presence rewards every eye that finds it.
Blessed is His service; His servants shine. He knows every heart from the inside - the highest of all beings. Whoever He comes to dwell in lives in deep gladness -
and death does not draw near that person. Deathlessness is reached, remembering the One, in the company of the good.
This one says death keeps its distance from someone the One lives in.
The last pauri gathers all the protection of this section into a face. mat pooree amrit jaa kee darisat — the One's wisdom is complete, and the One's glance is amrit, life-giving nectar. Earlier sections pictured this nectar falling like rain. Here it is the closing picture. Then come the lotus feet, beautiful beyond compare, and the darsan, the blessed sight of the One.
Near the end is the strongest promise: taa kai nikat na aavat kaal — death does not come near that person. Kaal means death. This does not mean the body never dies. It means death has no say over who that person has become. Think of a song. The speaker can be switched off, but the music was never only in the speaker. An earlier pauri said the forgotten are already dead. Here it turns around: the fully remembered are already deathless.
The last line joins Sukhmani's two constants in one breath: saaDhsang naanak har Dhi-aa-i-aa — remembering the One, in the company of the good. The Name, and the gathering. By now a reader can guess how the section will end. Sukhmani counts that as success.
If part of you is already beyond death's reach, how should the rest of you spend its limited time?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI