Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Without money you can’t buy anything at the market.
Without a boat you can’t cross the water.
And without the teaching to serve, the journey comes to nothing.
Everything needs the right means to get where it is going, and for the soul's journey that means is the teaching.
Guru Nanak uses three everyday pictures. Bin dam kay sa-udaa nahee haat — with no money, you cannot buy anything at the market. Bin bohith saagar nahee vaat — with no boat, there is no path across the sea. Bin gur sayvay ghaatay ghaat — without serving the Guru, the teaching, everything is lost.
Think of trying to play a video game with no controller. You can want to play all day, but nothing moves. Every journey needs the thing that carries it. For the soul's crossing, that is the teaching.
What is the “boat” you rely on to get through hard stretches?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI