Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Like a shepherd who stays in the field only for a season — that is how long anyone stays in this world.
Yet people build their homes here as if it were forever, laying falsehood in the foundations.
The hymn opens with one of Guru Nanak's most disarming similes: the shepherd's camp. A shepherd pitches in a pasture for a season and everyone — including the shepherd — knows the tents come down. The absurdity the verse exposes is not building a house; it is believing the house. "Practicing falsehood, they build their homes": the falsehood is not the bricks but the assumption of permanence mortared between them. This is Sach applied to real estate — living as if the temporary were the real.
If you really knew your stay was short, what would you spend more time on — and less?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI