Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Remember, remember, remember the One - and find peace. Worry and pain melt out of your body.
Praise the One who fills the whole universe. Countless people say the Naam in countless ways.
Every wise book ever written grew out of one seed: the Naam of the One.
Whoever holds the One inside their soul - even a tiny spark of it - their glory cannot be told. Let me be with the ones who long just to see You. Nanak asks: save me along with them.
Remember the One, again and again, and peace comes and worry melts away.
The first pauri of Sukhmani opens with the word that will govern all twenty-four ashtapadees: simar - remember. Said three times, like a bell struck three times: simrau, simar, simar. The promise attached is immediate and physical: peace in the mind, worry and anguish dispelled from the body. Guru Arjan then makes a sweeping claim: the Vedas, Puraanas and Simritees - the entire library of sacred learning - were created from the One Word of the Naam. All scripture is commentary; the Naam is the text. The last lines are full of longing: Nanak asks only to be saved along with those who yearn for the Darshan, the sight of the One. The bani begins among the yearning - in Sukhmani, the company you keep matters, and the Sangat runs through the whole work.
What do you return to, over and over, when your mind needs to rest - and what would it be like if it were the One?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI