Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When a heart is twisted up like this, everything it does comes out a little crooked.
Sitting or standing, coming or going, the crookedness shows.
Sadly, this way of living hurts the person first.
Then it spills over and troubles others too.
Kabir says that a twisted-up heart hurts its owner first, and then others.
Kutiltaa means crookedness, a bent and tangled way of going through life. Baithat uthat kutiltaa chaaleh: sitting or standing, they move crookedly. A knotted-up inside shows up in every ordinary thing a person does.
And the cost is double. Aap ga-ay a-uran hoo ghaaleh: they ruin themselves first, and then they ruin others. Think of a knot in a shoelace. It trips the one wearing the shoe before it bothers anyone else. Kabir keeps our eyes on the pain inside the habit, not on condemning the person.
Have you noticed how a bad mood inside you can leak out and touch the people around you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI