Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The many flashy shows of illusion are useless; I hold back my love from them.
Whatever pleases my One — in that I find my glory.
The "flashy shows of Maya" are all the glittering things that promise to make you feel important and full: status, spectacle, the endless display. Guru Arjan calls them useless and withholds his love from them — not because pleasure is evil, but because these things cannot deliver what they advertise. Then the reorientation: "my glory is in whatever pleases the One." Where do you locate your sense of worth? In the applause and the trophies, or in alignment with something real? He relocates "glory" from the outer show to the inner alignment — and the outer show loses its power to jerk him around.
What things promise to make you feel important? Do they actually keep the promise?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI