Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Without the Name, no one is accepted — the self-willed lose their honor.
Bound in the city of death they take their blows — a birth spent for nothing.
This one says the saddest loss is to waste a whole life without the Name.
bin naavai ko-ay na mannee-ai — without the Name, no one is accepted. Think of a coin from a play set. It will not buy anything at a real shop. The manmukh, the one who follows only their own will, loses honor this way.
The verse then uses a hard picture: being tied up in jam pur, the city of death. Guru Amar Das does not soften it.
But the saddest words are these: birthaa janam gavaa-ee — the whole life spent for nothing. This raag teaches that a human life is the one market where true wealth can be earned. To leave it with empty hands is the biggest loss of all.
If you imagine reaching the end having gained everything except what matters — what would you wish you had done?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI