Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Whoever keeps this treasure turning in the mind finds freedom - in any age, every age.
In it is His glory, the Name, the singing of the sacred Word - the thing the oldest books were all pointing at.
The essence of all religion is the Name of the One - alive in the minds of those who love Him. In good company, millions of faults dissolve; by such grace, even death's messenger loses the address.
Those on whose foreheads such a destiny was written - they find their way into the sanctuary of the good.
This one says the heart of every faith is the Name of the One.
It is a big claim, said calmly. The essence of all religion is kayval har naam, only the Name of the One. An earlier song of Sukhmani said something close: of all religions, the best is to remember the Name and keep your actions clean. So remembering, joined with clean living, is named the highest practice of all.
For a long time, readers have heard this line reaching outward. Every true path may be circling the same one thing, in its own words. Guru Nanak once sang of six schools of thought with one Teacher behind them all. This verse opens that door. It does not say every tradition is the same. Think of children from different countries who each say "mother" in their own language. The words are different. The love they point to is the same.
The old books, the Simritees, Shaastras and Vedas, "speak of it." They are honored here as signposts, like a finger pointing kindly at the moon.
Then Sukhmani's oldest promises come back. In good company, kot apraaDh, millions of wrongs, are wiped away. By the grace of the good, a person is freed from jam, the messenger of death. The last line closes gently, as Sukhmani always does. Those with such a destiny written on their foreheads find their way into the shelter of the good. Even the finding is a gift.
If people of different faiths may be circling the same essence in different languages, how should they treat each other?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI