Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
A restless mind roams in every direction, over water, over mountains, through the forests. It is always searching outside itself.
Chasing after passing scraps, it never settles. It is like a bird circling down to whatever it happens to spot below.
A mind that searches everywhere outside itself never lands. What it is looking for is already within.
This shalok, a short verse, is a picture of the unsettled mind, not of any one person. Firdee firdee dah disaa — wandering and wandering in the ten directions, over jal parbat banraa-ay, water, mountains and forests.
The verse's picture is stark: the il, a scavenging bird, dropping down onto whatever dead thing it spots. It is a hard image. What matters is the searching outside. The mind hunts for happiness in one scrap after another, out in the world. It never rests. It always lands on the next thing, like clicking link after link and never feeling done.
This sets up, by contrast, the medicine of the whole vaar, this long ballad. What the roaming heart chases everywhere out there is already within. The musk deer runs through the whole forest searching for a sweet scent, and the scent is coming from its own body.
When you feel restless, do you reach for the next thing and the next? What happens if you pause and stay still instead?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI