Sikhism·Raag Aasaa·Shabad 271
Verse 1 of 10

A Thousand Roads, and the Destination on None

ਆਸਾ ਮਹਲਾ ੧ ॥
aasaa mehlaa 1.
Aasaa, First Mehl:
ਚਲੇ ਚਲਣਹਾਰ ਵਾਟ ਵਟਾਇਆ ॥
chalay chalanhaar vaat vataa-i-aa.
The travellers travel from one road to another.
ਧੰਧੁ ਪਿਟੇ ਸੰਸਾਰੁ ਸਚੁ ਨ ਭਾਇਆ ॥੧॥
DhanDh pitay sansaar sach na bhaa-i-aa. ||1||
The world is engrossed in its entanglements, and does not appreciate the Truth. ||1||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

The travelers keep moving from one road onto another, always another road.

The world stays wrapped up in its entanglements and never comes to treasure the Truth.

A thousand roads, endlessly exchanged — and the destination was never on any of them.
The deeper layer

This one is about people who keep moving but never arrive.

Guru Nanak pictures travelers who keep changing roads. They try one path, then drop it for the next. A new goal, a new fix, a new road, again and again.

Think of scrolling from app to app on a phone, looking for something good. An hour passes, and you feel emptier, not fuller.

The world stays busy with its tangles. It moves too fast to see what is true. Truth does not ask you to hurry. It asks you to stop. The next line, the pause line, shows where all this travel was meant to end: at home.

A Question to Sit With

When you feel restless, do you change roads — or stop and ask where you are actually going?

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI

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