Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Someone can recite holy texts in a beautiful, sweet voice.
And still it has not reached their heart at all. Their actions toward other living things stay hard.
This one says reciting holy words beautifully is not the same as a changed heart.
Bayd parhai mukh meethee banee — he recites the Vedas, the old Hindu scriptures, in a sweet, musical voice. Yet the next line says he does not hold back from harming living beings.
This is not a verse against Hindus. The shabad names the Vedas because they were the scripture close at hand. Its warning fits any sacred reciting, in any faith, that stays on the lips and never reaches the hands.
Think of a kid who sings a kindness song perfectly at assembly, then shoves someone in the hallway. The whole shabad makes one point: beautiful form without lived kindness is empty.
Can you say kind words and still not act kindly? What tells you if the change is real?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI