Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In this age, real glory is the Name — without the Name, there is no glory at all.
The pomp of Maya glitters four short days — then it is gone, without a moment's delay.
Worldly fame lasts only a few days, but the glory of the Name keeps growing.
Guru Amar Das checks the world's prizes with the plain honesty of a shopkeeper counting coins. Maa-i-aa kee sobhaa is the shine of maa-i-aa, the passing world. It is fame, show and whatever is trending right now. It lasts chaar dihaarhay, four days. In Punjabi, "four days" means hardly any time at all. And it goes bilam na ho-ay, without even a moment's delay.
Think of a video everyone shares for one week, and then nobody remembers it.
Against that stands the one glory that keeps growing instead of running out: the Name. This raag has made the same comparison before with coins and with dyed cloth. Here it is made with fame itself. There is the four-day kind the world rushes after. And there is the lasting kind that comes to people dyed in the Name, without their ever chasing it.
What kind of recognition are you working for — the four-day kind, or the kind that compounds?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI