I am a sacrifice to one who sings the Glorious Praises of the Lord.
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You are pure and spotless, mighty One — how can I, so unclean, ever meet you?
I have one thing in my mind and a different thing on my lips; I am such an unlucky pretender.
This is one of the most honest verses in the raag, and it must be read carefully so it heals rather than harms. Guru Ram Das voices the seeker's painful awareness of the gap between inner and outer self — "one thing in my mind, another on my lips." This is the universal experience of not-yet-integrity: we all know the distance between who we appear to be and what actually moves in us. But this is confession, not self-condemnation. The point is not that the seeker is worthless; it is that honesty about the gap is the first step across it. You cannot close a distance you refuse to see. Naming it plainly — without drowning in shame — is itself the beginning of becoming whole (Sach).
Why is it actually brave, not shameful, to admit when your inside and outside don't match?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI