Sikhism·Raag Gauree·Shabad 258
Verse 6 of 9

Walk the Teaching and Separateness Lifts

ਸਤਿਗੁਰੁ ਸੇਵਿਐ ਸੂਤਕੁ ਜਾਇ ॥
satgur sayvi-ai sootak jaa-ay.
Serving the True Guru, pollution is eradicated,
ਮਰੈ ਨ ਜਨਮੈ ਕਾਲੁ ਨ ਖਾਇ ॥੫॥
marai na janmai kaal na khaa-ay. ||5||
and then, one does not suffer death and rebirth, or get devoured by death. ||5||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

When we walk with the teaching, that inner sense of separateness lifts. Then the coming and going quiets, and change no longer has any power to unsettle us.

Walk with the teaching and the felt separateness lifts — leaving you steady, unshaken by change.
The deeper layer

Walk with the teaching, and the feeling of separateness lifts.

Satgur sayvi-ai sootak jaa-ay — serving the True Guru, the uncleanness goes. Here that uncleanness is the felt separateness. Serving means humbly walking with the teaching.

Marai na janmai kaal na khaa-ay — no more dying and being born, and kaal cannot swallow you. Kaal means time, change, and death. This is not about escaping death by magic. It is about being so rooted in the One that change loses its power to shake you. Think of a sturdy boat that rides big waves without tipping. The old rules could never make anyone clean. Walking with the teaching quietly does what no ritual could.

A Question to Sit With

What helps you feel steady and unshaken even when things around you are changing fast?

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI

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