Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Imagine your heart is a city. Some good citizens live there — being honest, being kind, being patient, being brave, being content. And some troublemakers live there too — flashes of anger, greedy wanting, showing off.
When I made peace with the good ones and let the troublemakers move out, my city changed. I kept the good five close, and I gently sent the other five away.
This whole hymn is one long, delighted picture: the human heart imagined as a well-run city. The opening move is the whole spiritual life in miniature. Panch manaae, panch rusaae — five reconciled, five estranged; panch vasaae, panch gavaae — five settled in, five sent away. Sikh tradition reads the welcomed five as the virtues (truth, contentment, compassion, patience, righteousness) and the exiled five as the passions (lust, anger, greed, attachment, pride). Notice this is not a war of extermination but a change of residents — you reconcile the good and simply stop housing the harmful. A city becomes livable not by who it attacks but by who it lets live there.
Which good 'citizen' would you like to invite to live more in your heart this week?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI