Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The body is dust, and the breath moving through it makes it speak. So ask: who is it that actually dies? The grasping, the arguing, the "me first" -- that can die. But the one who quietly watches all of it never dies at all.
Guru Nanak asks who really dies, and answers: the grabbing, arguing "me" can die, but the quiet watcher inside never dies.
Dayhee maatee bolai pa-un — the body is dust, and the breath speaks through it. Then he asks, bujh ray gi-aanee moo-aa hai ka-un: understand, O wise one, who has died?
His answer is jeevat marnaa, dying while alive. What dies is the part that grabs and argues and says "me first." That is ego, the noisy self that claims everything. What does not die is the daykhanhaar, the One who sees. This is the quiet witness inside you. The tradition links it with the chautha paad, the "fourth state," a place of awareness beyond waking, dreaming and deep sleep.
Think of the sky behind the clouds. The clouds come and go, and some are stormy. The sky was never the clouds, and it is still there. Guru Nanak separates the body's death from this other, meaningful death: the death of ego. The deathless part is not something you have to believe in. It is the watcher that was never the ego in the first place.
Can you notice the part of you that simply watches your thoughts, without being them?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI