gwvY ko qwxu hovY iksY qwxu ] gwvY ko dwiq jwxY nIswxu ]
gwvY ko gux vifAweIAw cwr ] gwvY ko ividAw ivKmu vIcwru ]
gwvY ko swij kry qnu Kyh ] gwvY ko jIA lY iPir dyh ]
gwvY ko jwpY idsY dUir ] gwvY ko vyKY hwdrw hdUir ]
kQnw kQI n AwvY qoit ] kiQ kiQ kQI kotI koit koit ]
dydw dy lYdy Qik pwih ] jugw jugMqir KwhI Kwih ]
hukmI hukmu clwey rwhu ] nwnk ivgsY vyprvwhu ] 3 ]
Some are lyrical about your prowess
Wondering who else can match your prowess
Some are lyrical about your bounties
And see them as signature of your presence
Some are lyrical about your glories galore and virtues great
Some are lyrical about how hard and far and deep one delves to know you
Some are lyrical about how you create and destroy life
Some are lyrical about how you suck out and then breathe in life
Some are lyrical about your distance
Some are lyrical about your immanent presence
One may go on and on and on to describe you without an end
Millions have tried and tried but gave up at the end
The ever generous Lord keeps on giving to the point of satiation
Since ages and ages all are surviving on this generosity
O Nanak, the blithe God is carrying on this operation through his Hukam in blissful joy.

From day one, mankind is trying to capture God into some kind of theory. All religions and other schools of philosophical thought are, to say it in simple words, the products of this activity. Human psychology runs something like this. Whenever we come across something new, first of all we try to measure up its strength. If it is weak, we try to use it and if necessary don’t even hesitate to kill it; if it is strong and powerful, then we start thinking about its usefulness and how and what we can get something out of it. If it is very useful and powerful, then we start singing its praises and even deify it. We try to know more and more about it. This results in various theories that try to understand this new power.

Unfortunately, often those who chisel out these theories keep their own vested interests in mind. This is what has happened to God. As soon as mankind realized the existence of some power that operates this universe, it did not took it long to find that it is very powerful. Various theories about God mushroomed around the world; however as we see, more often than not, these theories do protect the vested interests of those who devised them or those who preached them across the globe.

In the first eight lines of this stanza Guru has mentioned these various theories about God. There is a very fine but extremely important difference between the way God has been described in these first eight lines and the way Guru has described God. And in the last six lines Guru gives his own view. In the first line Guru tells us that there are people who sing praise of God’s unmatched powers. It is interesting to note that though various religions describe God as omnipotent or superpower, but when we go into the details of that religion or theory, we find that these powers are only superficial. In reality all the executive powers have been snatched by the priestly class and God in fact has been reduced to their subordinate. Another thing to note here that Sikhism does not describe God as a Superpower or as an Omnipotent entity, as this description inherently assumes that God does have some, though weak, opposition. God of Sikhism[1] does not have any opposition at all.

Instead, Sikhism has described God as Karta. Some people translate it as Doer or Creator. It is very difficult to translate this Punjabi word into English without losing some of its nuances. When ever we say creator or doer it implies some one who designs or makes something with material provided to him. However God does not rely on anyone to provide him with material, nor does he chisel something out of something. God causes everything to happen through Its Hukam. God does not design a rose flower with petals meticulously made in a factory, but causes the rose plant to bloom into flowers.

In the second line Guru tells us that there are people who relate God to the gifts they get from It. People start worshipping these gifts as souvenirs of God. This results in unnecessary attachment to the gift and detachment from God. Guru has warned us about this pitfall. Gurbani reiterates times and again that we should always keep in mind the God who provides for all that we have in this world. We will be failing in our duty if instead of God we start singing the praises of gifts we receive from God. Our love of these gifts should lead us to appreciate and praise God. There are two things that distinguish Sikhism from this approach. First, Sikhism declares unequivocally that all gifts come form God. He is only giver. Secondly our love of the gift should not lead us to worship the gift; instead it should fill our heart with love for the giver.