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Sikhism·Raag Bihaagraa·Shabad 16
Verse 31 of 64

Good Words Lift the Heaviness of Thoughtless Deeds

ਸਲੋਕੁ ਮਃ ੪ ॥
salok mehlaa 4.
Shalok, Fourth Mehl:
ਬਿਨੁ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਸੇਵੇ ਜੀਅ ਕੇ ਬੰਧਨਾ ਜੇਤੇ ਕਰਮ ਕਮਾਹਿ ॥
bin satgur sayvay jee-a kay banDhnaa jaytay karam kamaahi.
Without serving the True Guru, the deeds which are done are only chains binding the soul.
ਬਿਨੁ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਸੇਵੇ ਠਵਰ ਨ ਪਾਵਹੀ ਮਰਿ ਜੰਮਹਿ ਆਵਹਿ ਜਾਹਿ ॥
bin satgur sayvay thavar na paavhee mar jameh aavahi jaahi.
Without serving the True Guru, they find no place of rest. They die, only to be born again - they continue coming and going.
ਬਿਨੁ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਸੇਵੇ ਫਿਕਾ ਬੋਲਣਾ ਨਾਮੁ ਨ ਵਸੈ ਮਨਿ ਆਇ ॥
bin satgur sayvay fikaa bolnaa naam na vasai man aa-ay.
Without serving the True Guru, their speech is insipid. They do not enshrine the Naam, the Name of the Lord, in the mind.
ਨਾਨਕ ਬਿਨੁ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਸੇਵੇ ਜਮ ਪੁਰਿ ਬਧੇ ਮਾਰੀਅਹਿ ਮੁਹਿ ਕਾਲੈ ਉਠਿ ਜਾਹਿ ॥੧॥
naanak bin satgur sayvay jam pur baDhay maaree-ah muhi kaalai uth jaahi. ||1||
O Nanak, without serving the True Guru, they are bound and gagged, and beaten in the City of Death; they depart with blackened faces. ||1||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

Actions done without any wisdom behind them can end up weighing us down like chains.

A restless heart with nowhere steady to rest just keeps circling and never settles.

But let good, true words into your life, and the heaviness lifts.

Actions with no wisdom behind them can weigh you down — but good words lift the heaviness.
The deeper layer

A Shalok of Guru Ram Das (Fourth Mehl) describing life without the inner turn: deeds become bandee — chains that bind rather than free. "They find no place of rest... their speech is insipid" — a restless, flavorless life circling without settling. The source ends with the harsh "City of Death... blackened faces"; the qMonk voice, following the wellbeing rules, keeps only the freeing kernel — good words lift the heaviness — and drops the punitive imagery. The teaching underneath is the Vaar's constant one: it's not the doing but the wisdom behind the doing that frees or binds.

A Question to Sit With

How can the very same action feel like a burden one day and a joy another?

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI

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