Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You can read and recite and study every scripture there is. You can hear the old books, the Vedas and the Puranas, again and again.
Yet if the heart is never soaked in the taste of the One, the mind just keeps on wandering.
Reading holy books is good, but the mind settles only when the heart tastes the One.
Parh parh pothee simrit paathaa — reading and reciting the books again and again. Nanak names the Simritis, the Vedas and the Puranas, the respected old scriptures of India. Bin ras raatay man baho naataa — without being soaked in ras, the taste of the One, the mind keeps wandering.
Think of reading every recipe for mango lassi but never drinking one. You know a lot, and you are still thirsty. Knowing alone does not still the mind. The question is about reading that never reaches that taste. It is never about the books themselves. Anyone, in any tradition, can ask it gently of their own reading.
Can you know all about something and still not really feel it? What’s the difference?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI