A beginner's guide to Japji Sahib: Pauri 38

 

jat  paa-haa-raa,  Dhee-raj  sun-yaar.
Make self-restraint one’s senses & organs (i.e. moral discipline) the furnace, and patience the goldsmith.
This line and the following lines in this verse describe seven qualities needed for enlightenment and to reach Sach Khand, the realm of Truth. The process of manufacturing a coin by a goldsmith has been used as an example to highlight these seven qualities that a person requires for Sach Khand, the realm of Truth.

ah-raN  mat,  vey’d  hathee-yaar.
Make intellect the anvil (the strong block on which the object is placed and struck), and spiritual knowledge the tool for striking.
The Guru stresses the need to re-programme ourselves with the holy wisdom. Just like a mark is left when a hammer strikes a surface, when the mind is hit with God’s holy wisdom through listening, reading and contemplating the Guru’s Wisdom, it leaves a positive mark.

bhau  khal-aa⁽ⁿ⁾,  ag-gan  tap  taa-o.
Make the holy-fear of Vaheguru the bellows (the device that produces air when squeezed together with two handles) to fan the flames of practising devotion.
Just as iron becomes malleable or bendable with heat and can then be easily shaped when the mind becomes easy to mould and transform with holy fear (respect and awe) of God and continuous devotion.

bhaa⁽ⁿ⁾-daa  bhaa-o,  amm-rit  tit  Dhaal.
Make love the vessel in which the life-giving (Amrit) Name of the Lord is melted.
Love for God is like a vessel that holds or keeps together the spiritual treasures one earns and collects on the pathway to God. When our heart melts with the love of God and Their creation, then God’s Name (i.e. constant remembrance) becomes imprinted in the heart.

ghaRee-yai  sh-bad,  sach-ee  tak-saal.
The ideal spiritual lifeò is formed this way in the mintâ of Truth.

jin  kau  nadar  karam,  tin  kaar.
Whoever gets Their Glance of Grace, obtains the (true) work (of shaping their spiritual life).

naa-nak, nad-ree,  nadar  ni-haal.  ||38||
(Guru) Nanak (Ji) says- such people become happy with the Graceful Lord’s look of kindness. ||38||

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ò The word ‘shabad’ has multiple meanings. Although it is frequently used to mean the ‘Word’, ‘Guru’s Word’, ‘Lord’s Name’, etc., in this particular context the word means ‘the ideal spiritual life.’

â A mint is a place that manufactures coins.