Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
It's a little funny how quick we are to say "this is mine, that's mine" — the house, the stuff, the world itself. But none of it was ever truly ours to keep.
This is the center of the shabad: the things we call "mine" are only on loan.
This line is the Rahao, the "pause" line, the center the shabad turns around. Kabir starts with a sharp question: laaj na marahu kahhu ghar mayraa — how are you not ashamed to say, "This house is mine"? The point is not to make anyone feel ashamed. It is a gentle, almost smiling look at how quickly we all claim things.
Ant kee baar nahee kachh tayraa — at the very end, nothing is yours. That is the true teaching. Things are on loan, like a school laptop you hand back at the end of the year.
What is really yours is the inner life you grow: your love, and your remembering of the One.
Of all the things you call "mine," which ones could you actually lose — and which could never be taken?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI