ਧਨਵੰਤਾ ਅਰੁ ਨਿਰਧਨ ਮਨਈ ਤਾ ਕੀ ਕਛੂ ਨ ਕਾਨੀ ਰੇ ॥
Dhanvantaa ar nirDhan man-ee taa kee kachhoo na kaanee ray.
It gives no special consideration to either the rich or the poor.
ਰਾਜਾ ਪਰਜਾ ਸਮ ਕਰਿ ਮਾਰੈ ਐਸੋ ਕਾਲੁ ਬਡਾਨੀ ਰੇ ॥੨॥
raajaa parjaa sam kar maarai aiso kaal badaanee ray. ||2||
The king and his subjects are equally killed; such is the power of Death. ||2||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Time does not care if you are rich or poor, famous or unknown. A king and the people who serve him travel the very same road.
That is a strange kind of fairness — it means no one stands above anyone else. We are all in this together.
In the end, no rank sets one person above another.
dhanvantaa ar nirdhan — it gives no special consideration to rich or poor. raajaa parjaa sam kar — king and commoner are made equal. This is Kabir's caste-and-class leveling in cosmic form: mortality erases the hierarchies the world builds, a theme the whole Bhagat block will press socially as well.
A Question to Sit With
Where do you see people treated as "better" or "worse," and how would it feel to drop that?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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