Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
People spend their whole lives crying "riches, riches" — and in the end the riches go with no one.
The soul, like a swan, rises and leaves, sad, and all that wealth stays behind.
Death hunts down the false mind, and it carries its faults along when it goes.
But when goodness is with it, the mind turns inward and melts into the deeper mind.
"Mine, mine," people cry until they die — and without the Naam they find only pain.
Where are their forts and mansions, palaces and courts now? Gone like a short tale told.
Nanak says: without the True Naam, the false just come and go.
The One is clever and beautiful, wise and all-knowing.
Hans (the swan) is the soul departing, sad to leave what it clung to, and jam, death, follows the false mind. Man meh man ulto marai — the mind turning inward, the ego dissolving (positive) when virtue accompanies it. Garh mandar mehlaa — the vanity of possessions, gone like a short story.
If the soul carries only what it became, what are you growing in yourself?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI