Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who remember were inspired to remember. Those who sing were given the song.
By kindness the light turns on. By kindness the heart opens like a lotus. When the One is fully pleased, He comes to live in the mind - and the whole way of thinking is lifted.
Every treasure arrives by kindness. No one gets anything alone.
We do as we have been set to do. Nanak says: nothing, in the end, is in our hands.
Even our remembering of the One is a gift, and nothing is finally in our hands.
This last verse turns the whole group of eight inside out. Seven verses said: remember! sing! And now the eighth shows that even doing that is a gift. Aap japaa-ay japai so naa-o — whoever the One inspires to remember, remembers the Name.
Line after line gives each step of the spiritual life to kindness. Pargaas, the light of understanding. Kamal bigaas, the heart opening like a lotus. The One coming to live in the mind. A lifted way of thinking. All treasures.
Then the last lines take the floor away completely. Aaphu kachhoo na kinhoo la-i-aa — no one gets anything by themselves. Naanak in kai kachhoo na haath — nothing is in our hands.
This can sound like giving up. Here it can be heard as the opposite: the worried, managing self finally gets to rest. Think of a child who has been trying to hold up a tent pole all night, and then learns the tent was already staked down. Those hands were never holding the world up. Knowing this, they can finally open.
This is gurprasad, grace, with nothing left out. It is why this group of thank-you verses ends here. Thanks is complete only when even the one saying thank you is counted among the gifts.
If nothing is finally in your hands, what is left for you to do - and what are you free to stop doing?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI