Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If your heart is unkind inside, no amount of washing at holy places will make you good.
You can't fool the One with outer show — it sees straight to the heart.
This one says washing the outside cannot clean an unkind heart.
Kabir says: antar mail jay tirath naavai — if the heart is dirty inside, even bathing at holy places will not take you to heaven. A tirath is a holy place where people go to bathe.
You can visit every holy river and scrub yourself spotless. But if the heart is unkind, none of it makes you good. naahee raam ayaanaa — the One is not fooled. The One sees past the outside to what is really in you.
Think of a shiny apple that is rotten in the middle. Polishing the skin does not fix the inside. This raag keeps teaching the same thing: real cleanness is in the heart, not on the skin or in the place.
Can doing the 'right' things where people can see make someone good, if their heart isn't kind?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI