Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who never turn toward the Guru and gather the treasure of the Naam end up feeling empty inside.
They go about grasping, yet the grasping never fills them.
When someone runs others down, it is their own trust they quietly spend, and they end up showing more than they meant to.
The very thing they schemed for slips further away, wherever they go.
Meanwhile, those who serve with love simply receive the treasure of the Name -- a wealth found nowhere else on earth.
The eighth numbered Pauri (Guru Ram Das), the fullest picture of the slander-motif. The source is blunt (backbiting, losing one's own credit); the harsh "no one even spits in their faces" line is dropped. What is kept, and it is the honest teaching, is the self-defeat of ill-will: paraa-ee bakheelee karahi aapnee parteet khovan -- running others down, a person spends their own good name. No one is shamed from above; the grasping and the scheming simply empty the one who does them, while loving service quietly fills.
Have you noticed how a person who is always criticizing others slowly loses people's trust?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI