Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You can plan and scheme in your mind all you like — but in the end, the same journey waits for everyone. No amount of clever arranging changes that.
When a heart turns toward the teaching, its endless wishing for things that don’t last quietly falls away. And keeping the One in mind — that is the thing that truly makes you well.
A gentle memento-mori Shalok. Sanch sanch... antahoo antnaa — all the mind's calculating still ends in the common departure. But the tone isn't dread; it's release. For the gurmukh (one turned toward the teaching), aas piaas — the fever of hope and craving for transient things — is mitai, erased. The beautiful closing image is naam so-oo... neekaa: the Name alone is what brings arogataa — true health, wholeness. So the verse pivots from the anxiety of grasping to the health of remembering. The death-awareness is kept (it's the point of the whole Bavan Akhri's middle stretch) but held lightly, as a reason to loosen the grip rather than to be afraid.
Is there something you spend a lot of energy arranging or worrying about that you could hold a little more lightly?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI