Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When a heart is split — half here, half chasing somewhere else — it never quite settles into steady love.
That restlessness keeps it wandering, never fully at peace, even in its dreams.
Whatever is built on what isn't real slowly turns unreal itself, the way a cheap dye washes out.
But a heart carrying real goodness inside finds a deep, quiet peace through the Word — the true teaching lived from within.
A Fourth-Mehl Shalok built on the sach-versus-koorh axis that runs through the whole Vaar. Doojaa bhaa-o — "the love of duality," a heart divided, attached to what is not its true Source — cannot find gurmukh preet, steady love. It "comes and goes," restless even in dreams. Then the koorh chain: koorh kamaavai koorh uchrai koorh lagi-aa koorh ho-ay — practice the unreal, speak the unreal, cling to the unreal, and you become unreal — the project's recurring "cheap dye that washes out" motif in its purest form. Against this, the last line is the hope: jin ka-o potai punn pa-i-aa — those who carry the treasure of real goodness inside find sukh through the gur sabad, the Word lived from within. This is not fatalism; it is the quiet promise that a heart with real goodness banked in it finds its way to peace.
What is something in your life that feels truly real and lasting — and something that feels more like a color that might wash away?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI