Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When wanting and anger pull us around, it's easy to forget the quiet One.
You can read all the right words out loud, but it's living them that actually carries you.
The verse pairs two forces — kaam (craving) and krodh (anger) — plus mamtaa (possessiveness, the mine-mine grip) as what makes a heart wander and forget. Then a line every studious person should hear: parhi-aa... boojhai naahi — you read and reflect and proclaim out loud, but without understanding you 'drown.' Reciting isn't the problem (this poem loves the Word); reciting without letting it change you is. Knowledge you merely announce doesn't hold you up in deep water; knowledge you live does.
What's something you know is right but find hard to actually do? What would help you live it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI