Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O my mind — wherever you pour yourself without the One, you end up tangled and stuck.
When someone acts only from "me, me, me," even their good and busy deeds become a heavy load to carry, because there's no love for the Name underneath them. The sweet pull of the world can feel like a rope you tie around yourself. Lost in confusion, some don't notice that the One is right there with them all along.
Just adding up your deeds like a scorecard won't set you free — a wall built of wet mud can't be scrubbed clean. But the one who is helped to see — for them, facing the teaching, the mind grows clear and bright.
The letter Rarra (R) in an early appearance — a Pauri warning that activity without love is just weight. The sharp line is paree-t nahee ja-o naam si-o, ta-o ay-oo karam bikaar — "when there is no love for the Name, even good deeds turn hollow." This is not against doing good; it targets ritual and busyness done from ego (hau hau karam), which becomes an "unbearable load" (bhaar afaar). The "rope of death" and "wall of wet mud" are vivid, but the fear-language is softened: the point is that a scorecard mentality — tallying deeds to earn release — can't cleanse you, any more than you can wash a wall that is made of the mud you're trying to remove. The release is jisahi bujhaa-ay — being helped to see: understanding itself, not accumulation, is what makes the budh (understanding) nirmal, immaculate. And the confusion it cures is missing that "God is always with them" — the One was never absent.
Have you ever done all the "right" things but from the wrong place inside — and felt how hollow that was?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI