Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Why do you wail and mourn for the one who has died? The Lord is, and shall always be.
You mourn for that person — but who will mourn for you?
Two consolations in one couplet, each sharper than it first sounds. First: the Lord is, and shall always be — the beloved dead have not fallen out of existence but deeper into it; what held them holds them still. Second, the turn no mourner expects: who will mourn for you? Not a taunt — a redirection. The energy spent wailing over the unchangeable is exactly the energy needed for the one death still open to preparation: your own. Grief is honored in Gurbani; what this verse questions is grief as a substitute for waking.
Does remembering that you will die someday make today feel smaller, or more precious?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI