Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You gave the four Vedas to Brahma himself, to read and read and reflect upon endlessly.
Yet the poor one never grasped Your Command — and so he cycles through heaven and hell.
This one says that even endless reading is not the same as understanding.
The verse tells of Brahma, the god of making in old Indian stories. He was given the four Vedas, the oldest holy books. parh parh karay veechaaree — he read and read and thought about them. And still, hukam na boojhai, he did not understand the Command. So he kept going around through heaven and hell.
If even Brahma, with every holy book, could not cross over by reading alone, then reading is not the crossing. The verse calls him bapurhaa, "poor fellow." It says it kindly. It is not making fun of learning.
Think of someone who reads every book about swimming but never gets in the pool. The books are good. But you only learn to swim in the water. Don't mistake the library for the shore.
Can you know everything about something and still miss what it is for?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI