Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
A person may take off their clothes and go about bare.
What kind of yoga is it to wear long, matted hair?
If the mind is not clean, what use is it to hold the breath at the Tenth Gate, a hidden doorway inside?
The foolish one wanders and wanders, coming back into the world again and again.
Outer signs of holiness do not make a heart clean. What matters is a clear mind.
Guru Amar Das lists some things people did to look holy. Some went about with no clothes. Some grew their hair long and matted. Some held their breath to reach the dasvai du-aar, the "tenth gate," a yoga idea of a hidden inner doorway.
But man nirmal nahee — if the mind is not clean and clear, none of it helps. It is like putting a shiny new case on a phone full of junk apps. The outside looks special. The inside still does not work well. A heart that has not understood this keeps wandering in circles, lost rather than home.
Have you ever tried to fix something on the outside when the problem was inside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI