Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If someone rubs sweet sandalwood oil on a body after its life is gone,
tell me, what good does it do?
If that body is rolled in dirt and dung,
what does it lose?
A body whose life has gone feels neither sweet oil nor dirt; what matters is the living presence.
Guru Arjan uses a stark picture to make a gentle point about presence and form. Jay mirtak ka-o chandan charhaavai: anointing a body after death changes nothing for it. Jay mirtak ka-o bistaa maahi rulaa-ee: rolling it in filth takes nothing from it either. Outer treatment of a lifeless form cannot reach a presence that has gone. So too, honoring a stone as if it held the living One misses where the One lives: within and everywhere.
Why do we say it's the person we love that matters, more than any object connected to them?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI