Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Turn away, O my mind, turn away.
Turn away from the faithless, cynical heart. False is the love of the false one; break the ties, my mind — and your ties will break. Break your ties with the faithless cynic.
This shabad is about the company you keep — the shadow side of Sat Sangat. If good company raises you, corrosive company drags you down, and Guru Arjan counsels turning away from the saakat — the faithless cynic, the person whose orientation is entirely toward ego and away from anything real. "False is the love of the false one": the cynic's affection is transactional, unreliable, self-serving. This is not a license for contempt — the tradition never permits writing off a soul. It is practical wisdom about influence: you become like those you spend time with, so guard whom you let close. The counsel is not "hate them" but "don't be bound to them."
How do the people you spend the most time with change who you become? How do you choose good company?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI