Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I worship the Perfect One - whose Name is perfect, whose ways are complete.
I have found the Perfect One - and now I sing of nothing less.
This one says one word again and again: complete.
Pooraa means perfect, complete, lacking nothing. The verse uses it four times. Worship the Perfect One. The Name is perfect. I have found the Perfect One. I sing of the Perfect One. It sounds like a drum beating one note: pooraa, pooraa, pooraa.
This short verse, the salok, opens the twenty-fourth and last song of Sukhmani Sahib. Each of these songs is called an ashtapadee, a song of eight verses. Over twenty-three songs, Sukhmani has looked at what goes wrong in us. It has taught, prayed, and shown a vision. Now nothing is left to add. Think of the last day of a long school year, when every lesson has been learned.
This last song gathers the harvest of the whole thing. It confirms that the cargo arrived safely. And in its very last line, it tells the reader the name of what they have been reading, and why. That name has not been spoken since the pause line of the very first song.
When something is truly finished and whole, what is left to do with it - fix it, add to it, or sing about it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI