Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who forget the Name are dead already — and go on dying, death after death.
The taste of the divine essence never came to them; they settle into what is lowest.
Forgetting the Name does not bring a punishment later; forgetting the Name is already a kind of being dead inside.
This is the most serious verse in the shabad, and its thinking is careful. Jinee naam visaari-aa say mu-ay — those who forget the Name are already dead. Not dead in the body. Dead in the way someone can walk around with no spark inside. Mar jaahi — and they keep on dying. A life cut off from the Living One keeps losing things, one by one: wonder, sweetness, hope.
Think of a plant kept in a dark cupboard. It is still there, but little by little it goes pale and droops.
The verse also says they sink into filth. The raag has used this hard picture before, for the same reason. It is never scorn for any person. It is an honest picture of what a soul ends up feeding on when it never tastes har ras, the sweetness of the One, the one taste that truly feeds it. Every soul eats somewhere. The only question is at which table.
What makes you feel most alive — and how much of your week actually contains it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI