Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
For the sake of this wealth, so many were ruined; because of this wealth, so many were disgraced.
It is not gathered without sin, and it does not go along with the dead.
And those whom the Creator is going to destroy — first, their virtue slips away from them.
Two verdicts on wealth in one breath: dirty coming in, useless going out — "not gathered without sin, and it does not go with the dead." Between those two lines an entire economy stands judged. Then the hymn's most chilling observation: destruction is preceded by the quiet loss of virtue. A kingdom — or a person — falls inwardly before it falls outwardly; the walls were breached only after the character was. Guru Nanak states it as something he watched happen: the rulers' goodness left first, and everything else followed.
What keeps a person's virtue from slipping away quietly?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI