Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Think how the deer, the fish, the bee, the moth, and the elephant each get trapped by just one thing they can't resist.
So if a person is pulled by all five kinds of temptation at once, they'll need real help to stay free.
The raag turns to a third Bhagat — Ravi Daas, remembered in tradition as a cobbler (one of the 'lowest' castes), whose hymns became scripture. He opens with a famous teaching about the five senses. Each of five creatures is caught by one sense-attachment: the deer is lured by sound, the fish by taste, the bumblebee by smell, the moth by sight (the flame), the elephant by touch. Each one is undone by a single thing it can't resist. And Ravi Daas's sobering point: a human being has all five pulls at once! So if even one attachment can trap an animal, a person pulled by all five needs real help to stay free. It's not said to frighten but to make us humble about how strong our pulls are — and to send us looking for the help that can actually free us.
What's a pull or temptation that's genuinely hard to resist? Where could you find help with it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI