Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Time slips by — young days, older days — and it is easy to feel like you have not done much that matters.
Yet this life is priceless. It gets spent as if it were worth no more than a tiny shell.
Looking back on the years, you see how precious life is.
Jaraa jeevan joban ga-i-aa means youth and old age, the whole of life, have gone by. Kichh kee-aa na neekaa means "I did nothing good." This is how it can feel when we look back and wish we had done more.
Ih jee-araa nirmolko means this soul, this life, is nirmolak, beyond price. Ka-udee lag meekaa means it was treated as worth a ka-udee, a tiny shell once used as the smallest coin.
Picture trading a real gold medal for one sticker. The medal did not lose its value. It was just traded badly.
Kabir's words point forward, not to shame. Your life is priceless right now. Seeing that is the start of treasuring it.
What is one way you could spend your time today on something that matters to you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI