Sukhmani Is the Cargo: the Name at Home in a Mind
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Sing His praise, friends, good hearts - with the whole mind gathered to one point.
Sukhmani - the peace of the mind - is the glory of God, the Name itself. When it comes to live in the mind, that person is wealthy.
Every real wish ripens; honor gathers; the highest of all places opens - and the long circling of coming and going is over.
Whoever leaves this world having earned the wealth of the Name - that one has understood what a life is for.
This one says the name of the whole song out loud: Sukhmani is the peace that the Name brings.
For the first time since the pause line of the first song, Sukhmani says its own name inside a verse. Sukhmanee sahj gobind gun naam — Sukhmani is easy peace, the glory of the One, the Name. Now we learn what the title means, from the inside. Sukhmani is not really the poem. It is what the poem carries: peace of mind, which is the Name's own glory. The poem is named after its cargo, like a lunchbox called by the food it holds.
Jis man basai so hot niDhaan — when it lives in the mind, that person is rich. The key word is "lives." Having the Name at home in you is the wealth.
The last line could be a family's plain answer to a very old question: what is a life for? Whoever leaves this world having earned the wealth of the Name has understood. A life is for earning the one wealth that goes with you. Everything else is like money lent for a trip. You hand it back at the border. An earlier salok taught this with a picture of customs at a border. Here it becomes the last exam, with just one question.
At the very end, one question: what did you earn that you can take? How would you like to be able to answer?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI