Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Someone can go through all the outer motions of being holy, spreading out a cloth to sit and looking the part.
And still they can be swallowing up whatever comes their way for themselves, greedy and unaware.
This one says that looking holy on the outside is not the same as being good inside.
Guru Arjan opens with a sharp picture. A man spreads out his Dhotee, his cloth, to sit on, the way a devout person sets up for prayer. Everything looks right from outside.
Then comes the give-away. Like a donkey, he gulps down whatever comes his way, just to fill his payt, his belly. Nothing inside has changed.
Think of someone wearing a doctor's coat who has never learned to help anyone. The coat is only a costume. This warning is about hollow show in any tradition, the gap between the costume and the heart. It is never aimed at one faith. The donkey picture names the greedy appetite, not the person's worth.
Have you ever seen someone act one way to look good, while doing something different underneath?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI