Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When I forget the Oneness and start seeing the world as split into “me” and “everything separate from me,” a kind of forgetting settles over my thoughts. From that forgetting grows the wanting that will not stop, the flare of anger, and the puffed-up feeling that I am the center of it all. Those three quietly wear a person down.
Feeling cut off from everything else is the soil where craving, anger, and pride grow.
Guru Nanak opens this shabad with doojee maa-i-aa. Doojee means "the second." Maa-i-aa is the passing show of the world. Together they mean the trick of feeling separate, as if it were "me" here and everything else over there.
When you live as if you are cut off, three weeds come up. Kaam is craving, the wanting that will not stop. Krodh is anger. Ahankaar is pride, the puffed-up "I am the center" feeling.
Think of a garden bed left alone. You did not plant the weeds, but the soil lets them grow. The verse says these three destroy a person. The honest truth is that they wear a person down, little by little.
When do you feel most like you are the center of everything — and what does that feeling do to how you treat people?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI