Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Without love for the One, other doings stay empty. Chants, intense practices, strict self-discipline, and ceremonies — done for their own sake, they slip away and leave the heart untouched.
Practices are good tools, but without the One at their heart they stay empty.
This line is the Rahao, the "pause" line, the center of the shabad. Har bin avar kir-aa birthay — without the One, other actions are empty.
The practices themselves are not being thrown out. The trouble is practice done without the heart turning toward the One. Jap tap sanjam karam — jap is repeating holy words, tap is hard self-discipline, sanjam is self-control, and karam is ritual. These are good tools. But when they become the goal, ihi orai moosay — they are robbed right here, in this world. They leave a person no richer inside.
Think of a gym bag you carry around all day but never open. The critique aims at practice cut off from the heart, not at any tradition. "Doing it for show" is one modern way to hear it.
Have you ever done the right thing on the outside while your heart wasn't really in it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI