Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One I am seeking is already deep inside me — closer than close — yet I cannot spot it, because a curtain hangs in the way. That curtain is haumai: the feeling that I am a separate self, cut off from everything else.
So much of the world is caught up in wanting and holding on, almost as if asleep. How does that fog ever lift so I can see clearly?
What we are looking for is already inside us. The only thing in the way is the feeling of being a separate self.
Antar alakh — the Unseen One is within, not far away. Na jaa-ee lakhi-aa — yet the One cannot be seen. Why? Vich parhdaa ha-umai paa-ee — a curtain of haumai hangs in between. Haumai is the ego, the feeling of being a separate "me," cut off from everything else. It is the one blocker this verse names. Think of a curtain drawn across a sunny window. The sun is right there. Only the curtain hides it.
Maa-i-aa mohi sabho jag so-i-aa — the whole world is asleep in love of Maya. Maya is the shiny pull of the world. People dream that separate things are the whole story.
Then the verse asks the question again. Ih bharam kahhu ki-o jaa-ee — tell me, how will this doubt go? Bharam is the confusion of mistaking the dream for what is real.
What is one thing that is close to you all the time that you sometimes stop noticing entirely?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI