Salok Sheikh Farid, Salok 67 — a brick for a pillow
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Farid says: one day a brick will be your pillow and the ground your bed, and tiny creatures of the earth will feed on the body.
Ages and ages will pass, and the body will lie there, turned on one side.
The body goes back to the earth, so it is no thing to be proud of.
This is one of Farid's starkest pictures. It siraanay bhu-ay savan: a brick under the head and the earth for a bed, the way a body is laid in the grave. Worms come, and the body stays on one side through kayt-rhi-aa jug, age after age.
Farid is not trying to frighten anyone. He wants the reader to see plainly how short the body's time is, and to spend that time on what matters.
What would you like your time here to be spent on?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI