Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Even when we've been sneaky or unfair or taken what wasn't ours, we are not stuck being that person.
By good fortune you can meet a wise teacher who shows you the way back.
It's like something dry and lifeless inside you drinks sweet water and comes alive again.
Meeting real wisdom, the aches you've been carrying can be set down.
This is a confession-verse, and it is important. The Literal Meaning is unflinching: "I am a deceitful sinner, a cheat, a robber of others' wealth." Gurbani regularly puts such confessions in the Guru's own mouth — not because the Guru is a thief, but to stand with the struggler and to insist that no past disqualifies you. The qMonk voice keeps the honesty ("sneaky or unfair or taken what wasn't ours") while adding the liberating frame: "we are not stuck being that person." The resurrection image — moee jind ("dead soul") coming back to life when the Name is placed "in the mouth" — is the verse's engine: identity is not fixed by our worst acts; remembrance revives.
Is there something you did that you worry defines you? What would it feel like to set it down?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI