Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The self-willed are dying even while they live, wasting away. Lost in the feeling of separateness, they smother their own souls.
Crying "mine, mine!" they ruin themselves;
they never look at their own souls, asleep in their make-believe.
Crying "mine, mine" all the time is like sleeping through your whole life.
The manmukh is the person who follows only their own will. The verse says they are dying the wrong way. Mayraa mayraa kar kar vigootaa — crying "mine, mine!" they ruin themselves. That grabbing cry is the voice of ego and clinging. Think of a kid at a party who spends the whole time guarding a pile of toys and never gets to play.
They never look at their own soul. They are asleep in make-believe. Another shabad in Raag Aasaa pictures a bride asleep while her Beloved is awake. Here that sleep goes on unbroken.
The sad part is that the harm is done to oneself. Caught in doojai bhaa-ay, the love of something other than the One, they smother their own soul.
What happens inside you when you get caught up in "mine" and "more"?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI