Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When someone turns only toward themselves and won't follow the perfect Guru's word, they get tangled up — pulled this way and that by the chase after glittering things.
Full of pretense inside, they see everyone else as fake too, and end up snarled in arguments that were never even real.
They talk and talk, trying to sell their words, but somehow nothing they say lands well with anyone.
They wander from house to house, and whoever sticks close to them picks up the same stain.
Those who turn toward the Guru stay unbothered and clear; they simply keep their own peace and sit close to the Guru instead.
Whoever hides their own Guru is not doing well; they lose everything they had gained, even what they started with.
Nanak says: there was a time people recited long scriptures and debated endlessly — but now the plain, living Word of the perfect Guru has risen above all of that. This is what gladdens the heart of the one who follows it. The one turned only toward themselves has let that moment slip away.
When someone turns away from the Guru, they get tangled in arguments; the wise stay calm and sit close to the Guru.
This verse compares two kinds of people through the way they speak. The manmukh faces only themselves. The gurmukh faces the Guru.
The manmukh is shown with real kindness, as someone tangled. They are caught in anhoday jhagrhay, "fights that were never real." A suspicious mind, full of pretending, makes up quarrels out of nothing. Nothing they say lands well, because it comes from being cut off.
What do the wise do? They do not argue back. They stay alipat, calm and untouched, like a lotus leaf that water just rolls off. They move closer to what feeds them, and sit near the Guru.
The line pahilaa aagam nigam makes a big claim. People used to recite the old scriptures and debate them. Now the living Word of the perfect Guru has risen above that. This is not because the scriptures are bad. It is because a plain, living teaching you can actually follow matters more than arguing for its own sake.
When someone is picking a fight that isn't real, is it always worth answering? What else could you do?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI