Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If you serve only the servant and never notice the Master, you miss the whole point. It is like churning plain water in a pond and expecting butter — no matter how long you churn, none will come.
Chasing the passing show is like churning water and hoping for butter.
Chayree kee sayvaa karahi — serving the chayree, the maid. The maid stands for Maya, the passing, glittering show of the world. Thaakur nahee deesai — while never seeing the Master, the One behind it all.
Then Guru Nanak gives a homely picture you can't forget. Pokhar neer virolee-ai maakhan nahee reesai — churn the water of a pond, and no butter comes. Butter only comes from milk. You could stir a bucket of water all day and get tired arms, and nothing else.
In the same way, chasing the surface of things gives nothing that lasts. Only turning toward the Real gives you the Real.
It echoes an earlier image of churning that does bring butter. Here, though, the wrong thing is in the pot, so all the effort brings nothing.
Have you ever worked really hard on the wrong thing and gotten nothing for it? What did you learn?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI