Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The things I chase for their own sake often slip away even while I'm still here holding out my hands for them.
If they can't stay with me now, they surely can't help me when it counts most. So let me not lose my heart to what cannot last.
Here the numbered verse ||1|| opens and the Rahao follows. The literal addresses a dayvaanay — literally "madman," but read in the project's lens as a gentle self-address, the way you might say "oh, foolish heart of mine." The teaching is about what deserts you: possessions and worldly things "leave you even while alive." This is not a grim threat but a clear-eyed reminder to place your heart on what stays, not on what is already slipping through your fingers.
What have you wanted badly that turned out not to stay — and what has quietly stayed with you instead?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI