Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Without any remembrance, life can shrink to just chasing and grabbing, driven around by wants.
Cut off from the One, a person can drift without a real sense of who they are -- and that is exactly what remembering the One gives back.
Without remembrance, life can shrink to chasing and grabbing. A person can even lose their sense of who they are.
The verse uses very harsh comparisons here, the kind people used in that time. The teaching underneath them is what matters.
Bin simran bha-ay kookar kaam — without remembrance, a person acts like a dog, driven by craving. Life narrows to appetite, like a dog that runs after every smell. Then the verse calls such a person ninaam, "without a name." Here that means without a settled sense of who you are.
And that is exactly what turning toward the One gives back. It is like hearing your name called by someone who loves you. You remember who you are. The whole picture is loss and return, never insult.
When your wants are running the show, do you still feel like yourself?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI