Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
As long as I carried the heavy bundle of all my burdens, I kept paying the price of the load. But I set that bundle down when I met the whole teaching — and then, at last, I became free of fear.
The closing image is unforgettable: pot — a bundle or load — carried on the head, exacting a daan (toll, fine) with every step. It images the load of bondage the verse describes; for younger readers it can also speak to the weight of worry and grasping. Pot daar — "throwing down the bundle" — and meeting the poora gur, the whole teaching, produces nirbha-ay: fearlessness, a keyword of the Sikh tradition. The shabad that began with a childlike, even heart ends with a heart set free of its heaviest freight.
What is a worry you've been carrying that you might be able to set down?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI