Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When you live turned toward the teaching, the ego quietly leaves from within. No grime settles on such a heart. And the Name comes to make its home in the mind.
This one says: turn toward the teaching, and ego leaves, grime can't stick, and the Name moves in.
Three clean lines each begin with gurmukh, one turned toward the teaching. Gurmukh vichahu ha-umai jaa-ay — from within the gurmukh, ha-umai leaves. Ha-umai is ego, the me-first self. It is not beaten out. It simply leaves, the way darkness leaves when you switch on a light.
Gurmukh mail na laagai aa-ay — no mail, no grime, sticks. An earlier hymn spoke of sootak, the old idea that touching certain things makes a person unclean. This is the true cleanness that hymn pointed to: cleanness of heart, not of touch. Think of a non-stick pan. Nothing burns onto it.
Gurmukh naam vasai man aa-ay — the Name comes to live in the mind. Ego leaves, grime can't stick, the Name moves in. It is one movement with three faces.
When your heart feels clear and light, what do you notice has quietly left it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI