Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You can dress in clean white clothes, take careful baths, and dab on sweet sandalwood. You can look perfectly polished on the outside. But what if you never turn your heart toward the Fearless, Formless Oneness? Then it is a little like an elephant who bathes in the river. It rolls straight back in the mud.
Looking clean on the outside is not the same as being changed on the inside.
Pahirai baagaa kar isnaanaa cho-aa chandan laa-ay — white clothes, careful baths, sweet sandalwood oil. All the ways of looking clean on the outside.
Then comes a funny picture. Ji-o hastee naavaa-ay — like an elephant taking a bath. It washes in the river and then rolls right back in the dirt. The point lands with a smile, not a scolding. Outer shine without inner change does not last.
The verse names no particular faith. It is about outer washing that has come apart from remembering the One. Any of us can ask this about our own habits.
The cure it names is remembering nirbha-o nirankaar, the Fearless One who has no form.
What's the difference between looking good on the outside and actually feeling clear on the inside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI