Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
This music, this Raag, is a good and lucky thing — if through it your mind turns toward the One.
Walk in tune with the True Guru; let that be your finest decoration.
The true Word is your lifelong companion — enjoy it, treasure it, always.
Just as the madder root gives cloth its deep, glowing red, give your whole heart to the One and be colored through.
Whoever loves the One is dyed the deep crimson of the poppy; that love soaks all the way in.
Pretending and trickery can be painted over, but the paint always flakes and the truth shows.
Praise that comes from a false heart is hollow.
Nanak says: the One alone is real, and casts a glance of grace all on Their own.
Real love soaks all the way through you, like a strong dye, while pretending is only a thin coat that flakes off.
This Shalok is by Guru Amar Das, the third Guru. It names the very Raag, the musical mood, it is sung in: Gauree. It says the music is sulakhnee, lucky and good, when it turns your mind toward the One. Without that, it is only pleasant sound.
Then come pictures of dyeing cloth, which run all through this song. Majeeth is the madder root. It gave old dyers their deepest, fastest red, a color that never washed out. That is love that soaks all the way in.
Against it stands koorh mulammaa, "false gilding." It is a thin coat of gold paint over cheap metal. Sooner or later it flakes, and what is underneath shows. Think of a painted toy car where the paint chips and the plain plastic shows through.
So the teaching is about being real. Real love dyes you through and through. Putting on a show is only a coating.
What is the difference between doing something because you love it and doing it just to look good? Can you feel that difference inside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI