Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Without remembrance, a person can end up just carrying loads and plodding along. They never ask where they are really going.
Cut off from the One, we can wander into places and habits that leave us feeling stuck and unclean inside. And remembrance is what clears the way.
Without remembrance we can plod along, carrying loads, never asking where we are going.
Bin simran gardhabh kee ni-aa-ee — without remembrance, a person is like a donkey. Here the donkey is a picture of plodding without direction. It carries heavy loads all day and never asks why. Saakat thaan bharisat firaa-ee — the one cut off from the One wanders into spoiled places. These are the places and habits that leave us feeling stuck and unclean inside.
Think of walking in circles around a mall, bags in both hands, not sure why you came. The teaching is about aimlessness, and the ruts that forgetting leads us into. Remembrance clears the way. And it speaks to all of us, not to some despised other.
When have you been so busy carrying loads that you forgot to ask where you were headed?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI