Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If pollution really clung to things, then even fire, air, and water would be "impure."
So would every bite of food we eat.
Even fire, air, and water would be "unclean" if uncleanness lived in things.
Guru Amar Das makes the point with the elements themselves. Sootak agan pa-unai paanee maahi — uncleanness in fire, air, and water. But these are the very things we use to make things clean! The world could not work if they were impure. Sootak bhojan jaytaa kichh khaahi — every bite of food would be unclean too, so no one could ever eat.
So the idea of outward uncleanness trips over its own feet. It is like a rule that says no one may breathe the air in this room. Nobody could follow it. The verse moves uncleanness from outward things to the inner feeling of separateness. That opens the door to everyone. It frees people from a cage of worried rules about who and what must be kept apart.
Fire, air, and water touch everyone equally. What does that tell you about who "cleanness" really belongs to?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI