Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
I searched and wandered a long, long time, and found that nothing — not my body, not my things — ever stays put.
Tangled up in grasping and greed, I forgot the real jewel: the One.
This one is about spending a long time chasing things that don't last, and losing the one thing that does.
The raag now turns to another Bhagat, or devotee-poet: Dhanna. Tradition remembers him as a simple farmer. He starts with an honest confession. Bharmat firat baho janam bilaanay — I wandered and wandered through many lives. Tan man Dhan nahee Dheeray — body, mind, and money never stayed steady. Nothing he chased stayed put.
This is the "rahaa-o," the pause line. It is the center of the whole shabad, the line to stop and think about.
Then he names what went wrong. Tangled in greed and wanting, man bisray parabh heeray — the mind forgot the jewel, the One.
Think of a kid who spends all day chasing a new game level, and forgets to call a grandparent who is waiting to hear from them. The game moves on. The grandparent's love was the jewel.
It is easy to chase what fades and lose track of what matters. Dhanna says this plainly. Then, over the rest of the shabad, he shows the way back to the jewel.
What's something people chase for a long time before realizing it doesn't stay or satisfy?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI