Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O my mind, what has happened to you — why have you gotten so carried away?
Day and night your days are quietly counting down, and you hardly notice; greed has made everything feel lighter and less real than it is.
This one asks the mind a gentle question: why have you gotten so carried away?
This line is the Rahao, the "pause" line, the center of the shabad. Guru Tegh Bahadur speaks softly to his own mind: man ray, "O mind." Ba-uraa is often put as "crazy." Here it is tender, like talking to yourself kindly. It means a mind that has lost track of itself. It is not a put-down of anyone.
Ahinis a-oDh ghatai — day and night, life is getting shorter. This reminder that our time is limited is meant to wake us up to value our days, not to scare us.
Think of a game clock ticking down while a player stares at their phone. Ha-uraa means made light, made worthless, by greed. Greed makes life feel thin. What is real has weight.
What's something precious that's easy to take for granted just because you have it every day?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI