The Idea That Things Defile You Collapses
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If you decide some things are 'impure' and to be avoided, you'll find life in everything — in wood, in every grain of corn, in water itself. It even reaches your own kitchen. You could never escape it.
Real impurity isn't like that at all. It isn't washed off with rules; it's cleared away by understanding.
This is the sutak shalok. Guru Nanak takes apart the idea that some things make you unclean just by touching them.
Sutak is the belief that certain things, foods, births or contacts make a person polluted. Guru Nanak answers with clear, simple thinking. Jay kar sootak mannee-ai sabh tai sootak ho-ay — if you accept this idea, then impurity is everywhere.
Look around. There are tiny creatures in cow dung and wood. Every grain of corn has life in it. The water that makes everything green is full of life. It even reaches our own kitchen. By that rule, you could never be free of impurity. The whole idea falls down.
Gi-aan utaaray dho-ay — real impurity is washed away only by wisdom.
Think of saying something mean to a friend, then putting on a clean shirt. The shirt is spotless, but nothing is fixed. Only understanding, and making it right, can fix it. What really makes you unclean is not something you touched. It is understanding you are missing, and that is cured by wisdom, not by scrubbing.
Does it make sense that being good is about your heart and understanding, not about avoiding 'unclean' things?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI