The Ordinary Day Is a Festival of Borrowed Gifts
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
By Grace you hear music at all - and behold every wonder you have ever beheld.
By Grace your tongue makes sweet words. By Grace you know moments of deep ease.
By Grace your hands move and do their work. By Grace comes every feeling of being complete, every arrival, every deep peace.
So why leave this One for anything smaller? Nanak says: wake up, dear mind, by the Guru's grace.
Even your hearing, your seeing and your moving hands are gifts, so an ordinary day is full of grace.
Now the list goes below things and status, to the abilities themselves. Suneh karan naad — you hear sound and music. Paykheh bismaad — you see wonders. You speak sweet words. You rest in ease. Hasat kar chaleh — your hands move and work.
This is thankfulness at its deepest. Not thanks for what your eyes and ears bring you, but thanks for having eyes and ears at all. Think of a perfectly ordinary day: hearing a door, saying a word, lifting a cup. Seen this way, it is a nonstop festival of gifts at work.
Then the lines climb without a break, from moving hands all the way to param gat, the highest state, and sukh sahj, deep and easy peace. It is one unbroken list, because here they all belong to the same group: gift.
The question comes back with its full weight: aisaa prabh tiaag avar kat laagahu — why leave such a One for something else? And the last line rings like an alarm bell: gur parsaad naanak man jaagahu — by the Guru's grace, wake up, mind.
Close your eyes and just listen for a minute. Who gave you hearing itself?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI