ਆਪਨ ਨਗਰੁ ਆਪ ਤੇ ਬਾਧਿਆ ॥
aapan nagar aap tay baaDhi-aa.
She has imprisoned the people in her own city.
ਮੋਹ ਕੈ ਫਾਧਿ ਕਾਲ ਸਰੁ ਸਾਂਧਿਆ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
moh kai faaDh kaal sar saaNDhi-aa. ||1|| rahaa-o.
She has tightened the noose of emotional attachment and shot the arrow of death. ||1||Pause||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
This trap builds its own little city and locks people inside it.
It tightens the knot of clinging — the tight grip of "mine, mine" — until it steals life's real freedom away.
Clinging builds a prison out of the very things we grip too tightly.
The Rahao names the real culprit: moh, attachment — the grip of clinging to things and people as possessions. Kabir pictures it building a whole city and imprisoning its own residents. Note the wellbeing care here: the point is not to frighten you, but to show how clinging quietly closes us in.
A Question to Sit With
What is something you hold onto so tightly that it sometimes holds onto you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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