Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
It's rare to find someone who truly understands what it means to let go.
Just wandering around empty-handed isn't it — that alone doesn't make a person free.
Real letting-go is dropping the worry and the grasping, and receiving what's good as a gift.
For a person like that, you'd gladly do anything — they've found the real thing.
This one says real letting go happens inside, not on the outside.
A darvays, or dervish, is someone who gives up worldly things to seek the One. Darvaysee ko jaansee virlaa ko darvays — only a rare dervish understands what giving up really means.
The verse is sharp here. Someone who just wanders from door to door, begging, is not holy for that alone. Being poor on the outside is not the same as being free on the inside.
Real letting go is inside. Jay aasaa andaysaa taj rahai — if a person drops hope and worry, the restless grabbing and fretting, and takes the Name as the gift they receive, then they are truly free.
Think of someone who gives away all their toys but keeps wishing and worrying about getting more. Their hands are empty, but their mind is full.
The Gurus keep moving holiness from the outside show to the inside of the heart. Nanak says he would wash the feet of such a truly free person. That is deep respect.
This Vaar is a long ballad of verses. Later in it, shaloks spoken to Mardana, Guru Nanak's companion, also look again at outer forms and what they really mean.
What would it feel like to let go of a worry, even without changing anything on the outside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI