Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In that pool — the pool of emotional attachment, of clinging to things and people and status — people have made their homes. They live there as if it were safe.
But the water in that pool is as hot as fire. Their feet are stuck in the swamp. They cannot move. They are drowning — and they have been there so long they think it is normal.
Guru Nanak's imagery here is vivid and uncomfortable: we have built our homes in something that is burning us. Emotional attachment (moh) is not simply affection or love — it is the clinging that cannot release, the grasping that confuses the channel for the source.
The people drowning in this pool are not villains. They are simply stuck — their feet mired in something that promised comfort but delivers only heat. The observation is compassionate, not judgmental. Guru Nanak has "seen them drowning there." He is reporting what he sees with the eyes of someone who can see clearly.
Is there something in your life that you keep returning to even though it hurts you each time — something you can't seem to let go of? What is it like to honestly look at it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI