Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Whoever holds this in the mind, and listens to it with love, comes into conscious remembrance of the One.
The pains of coming and going lift. This rare human body is redeemed in a single stroke.
The speech turns sweet as nectar; the reputation shines without needing polish; one Name fills the whole mind. Sorrow, sickness, fear and doubt walk out.
Such a person is rightly called good, and their doing is clean and whole. Their glory rises above every other glory. And for all these gathered virtues - this is named Sukhmani: the Peace of the Mind.
This one explains the name of the whole song: Sukhmani means peace of mind.
The very last line gives the title. Naanak ih gun naam sukhmanee — because of these gifts, this is named Sukhmani. So the last thing the reader learns is what they have been holding all along.
First the verse gives the two steps one last time. The song lives in the mind, and it is listened to with love. Then it lists the harvest as something already done. The pain of birth and death is lifted. The rare human body is saved in an instant, the same one-moment grace earlier songs described. Speech turns sweet like nectar. A good name shines clean. The One Name fills the mind. And four things walk out together: sorrow, sickness, fear, and doubt. An earlier salok showed them leaving the same way.
Think of a house after a long winter, when you open the windows and let the fresh air in. The rooms are the same, but everything feels different.
Sukhmani, the Jewel of Peace, is read by many Sikhs every day. It ends where it began. Not with a rule, but with a way of being. The mind is at home. The Name lives there. And peace is not getting away from the world. It is the One, present right in it.
You have walked through all twenty-four songs of the Jewel of Peace. What would it mean for your mind to actually become the place the title describes?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI