Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Without the True Guru, other songs are unripe, like green fruit.
Without the True Guru, songs are unripe. All other songs are unripe.
Those who say them are unripe. Those who hear them are unripe. Those who talk and explain are unripe too.
They may say "Har, Har" with their tongues every day, but they do not know what they are saying.
Their minds have been pulled away by the glitter of the world. The words just roll off their tongues.
Nanak says: without the True Guru, other songs are unripe.
Satguroo binaa hor kachee hai banee — without the True Guru, other songs are kachee. Kachee means unripe, raw, not baked. The opposite is pakkaa: ripe, baked firm, real. A kachaa house is made of mud and washes away in the rain. Unripe words are like that. They have not been baked in the fire of truth, so they cannot hold any weight. Think of green fruit, or half-baked bread.
Long ago, this verse also helped people tell the Guru's true songs apart from songs by people who only pretended to be Gurus. Some of these pretenders lived in the Gurus' own time. But the verse's sharpest point goes deeper, from who wrote the words to how we say them.
Here is the surprising part. Har har nit karahi rasnaa — people say "Har, Har," a name of the One, every day. Kahi-aa kachhoo na jaanee — but they do not know what they are saying. Why? Chit jin kaa hir la-i-aa maa-i-aa — Maya has stolen their attention. Maya is the world's glitter, whatever pulls us away from the One. Bolan pa-ay ravaanee — the words just roll off smoothly. The words are holy, but the heart is somewhere else.
Other verses of this song warn about empty talk too. This one points at holy talk, the hardest place to look.
This needs care. Gurbani never puts down repeating the Name. It is at the center of the Sikh path. The verse is about the difference between saying the Name with your whole heart there and saying it on autopilot. The same words can be ripe or raw. It depends on whether you are paying attention. As teachers in this tradition say, naam simran, remembering the Name, is being aware that the One is here. The word carries what the heart puts into it.
Think of a parrot. A parrot can say "love." Only someone who loves means it.
Have you ever said words — a promise, a prayer, a thank-you — while your mind was somewhere else? What changes when you mean them with your whole heart?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI