ਇਕ ਲੋਕੀ ਹੋਰੁ ਛਮਿਛਰੀ ਬ੍ਰਾਹਮਣੁ ਵਟਿ ਪਿੰਡੁ ਖਾਇ ॥
ik lokee hor chhamichharee baraahman vat pind khaa-ay.
The rice balls are offered to the gods and the dead ancestors, but it is the Brahmins who eat them!
ਨਾਨਕ ਪਿੰਡੁ ਬਖਸੀਸ ਕਾ ਕਬਹੂੰ ਨਿਖੂਟਸਿ ਨਾਹਿ ॥੪॥੨॥੩੨॥
naanak pind bakhsees kaa kabahooN nikhootas naahi. ||4||2||32||
O Nanak, the rice balls of the Lord are a gift which is never exhausted. ||4||2||32||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The offerings people set out for the gods and the dead — it is the priests who actually eat them.
But the One's offering, says Nanak, is a food that never runs out.
The Name is a food that never runs out — and needs no middleman to deliver it.
A pointed jab at ritual economics: the pind offered to gods and ancestors is, in fact, "eaten by the Brahmins." The rite enriches its administrators, not the dead. By contrast "the rice balls of the Lord are a gift which is never exhausted" — the Name feeds endlessly and benefits the soul directly, with no middleman. Iconoclasm in service of the inner life again.
A Question to Sit With
What is the difference between something that feeds you directly and something that mostly feeds the people running it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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