Maya Is Whatever Makes You Forget

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

Jaisee agan udar meh taisee baahar maa-i-aa — the fire inside the womb is like Maya outside. Maya is the world's glitter, the pull of wanting and worrying. Before birth, a baby lives in warmth and pressure, kept safe by a love it cannot see. After birth, we live in Maya's heat.

Maa-i-aa agan sabh iko jayhee — the two fires are the same kind of fire. Kartai khayl rachaa-i-aa — the Creator has set up this play. An earlier verse also called life the One's play. The feeling here is not scary. It is a secret being shared: you were already kept safe once, by a Care you could not see. The second fire is no different.

Then the verse tells a simple story. A baby is born, and the family is overjoyed. Parvaar bhalaa bhaa-i-aa — the family is so happy. Then, slowly, liv chhurhkee lagee tarisnaa — the child's loving connection to the One slips loose, and wanting moves in. Maa-i-aa amar vartaa-i-aa — Maya's rules start to run the show. Amar means an order. It is as if Maya moves in and takes over. It happens to everyone.

Now comes the most famous line. Ayh maa-i-aa jit har visrai — THIS is Maya: whatever makes us forget the One. Out of that forgetting, clinging grows, and we start loving other things more. Not money, not things, not the world itself. The forgetting is the problem.

The answer is not to run away. Jinaa liv laagee tinee vichay maa-i-aa paa-i-aa — those whose love holds find the One right in the middle of Maya. This is the Sikh way: living a family life, like a lotus that blooms in the pond without getting muddy. No forest, no cave. You remember the One right here, like a fish finding water while it swims.