Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Won't someone please show me what real happiness is?
Everyone keeps saying the word — happiness, happiness — while chasing after things that never quite fill them. If we keep looking in the wrong places, how will real happiness ever be found?
Everyone wants to be happy, but few look in the right place.
This is the Rahao, the "pause" line. It is the center of the shabad, the idea everything else turns around. Mo ka-o kusal bataavhu ko-ee — won't someone tell me what real happiness is? Kusal means being well, being truly happy.
Kabir's question is honest and searching. Kusal kusal kartay jag binsai — the world keeps saying "happiness, happiness," and is perishing all the same. The word is everywhere, but the real thing is missing. That is because people look for it where it cannot live. It is like hunting for your lost keys under the streetlight only because the light is better there.
The rest of the shabad answers by pointing away from empty forms and toward the living One. A child can feel the ache of the question before the answer comes.
Where do you look for happiness? Which places actually leave you feeling full?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI