Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Dear thoughtful one, say the beautiful Name — why stay quiet about it?
You've seen with your own eyes how the shiny things can trick us.
In the end, nothing travels on with you except the goodness you carried inside.
Land and clothes and gold and silver — none of it comes along.
Not the people, not the honors, not the fancy things — they all stay behind.
So keep good company; without it, all the world's glitter is empty.
This Chhant is a warm wake-up call, gentler than Shabad 13. It opens by addressing the listener as one of sabhaagai — of sublime faith, a thoughtful one — a respectful, encouraging address, not a scolding. The teaching is the great memento mori of "what comes with you": naal na chalai... naam — nothing goes along at the end except the Name, the goodness carried inside. The catalogue of what stays behind — land, clothes, gold, silver, family, honors, elephants and horses — is not a condemnation of these things but a clarifying of their weight: they're on loan, good to use, impossible to keep. For a child this is handled as perspective, not fear: the things you can hold in your hands are borrowed for a while; the good you grow inside is the part that's truly yours. "Without good company, the world is false" (koorhaavaa — hollow, unreal) points to where the real substance is: in love and connection, not possessions.
If you could only keep the things that are 'inside' you, what would you most want to have grown?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI