Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Fareed imagines the earth asking the sky, 'Where have all the travelers gone, the ones who passed through here?'
They journeyed on ahead of us — a reminder to travel our own road well.
We are all travelers passing through, so let us travel our road well.
Fareed ends this shabad, the last one in Raag Aasaa, with a haunting picture. Jimee puchhai asmaan fareedaa khayvat kinn ga-ay — Fareed, the earth asks the sky, "Where have the boatmen gone?" The boatmen are all the travelers who passed through this world before us. It is the old question: where did they all go? Fareed asks it with wonder.
The second line is serious. It says some were cremated and some lie in graves, and their souls face rebukes. It reminds us that how we travel our road matters.
The point of the whole shabad is wakefulness, not dread. Think of a hotel room. Many travelers stayed there before you. You never met them, but they were there, and now it is your turn. We are travelers passing through too. Let us travel our road well, with truth and love, while we are on it.
If life is a journey we're all passing through, what would it mean to travel your road well?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI