Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Listen to how the grasping self talks: "I'll deal with anyone who crosses me. Who would dare step onto my land? I'm the smart one, the clever one, the one who knows."
But with all that noise about myself, I forget the simplest thing of all — the One who made me, and made everyone I'm so busy competing with.
This is what the ego sounds like when it turns up the volume.
Haumai is the ego, the feeling of being a separate self. Here it talks nonstop. Ha-o bandha-o ha-o saadha-o bair — "I'll tie up my enemy, I'll settle the score." Ha-o pandit ha-o chatur si-aanaa — "I'm the scholar, I'm the clever one, the wise one." Almost every line starts with ha-o, which means "I." I, I, I.
Picture someone in a group chat who only ever posts about themselves. They are so loud that they stop hearing anyone else.
Then the last line lands quietly. Karnaihaar na bujhai bigaanaa — the one lost in himself does not recognize his own Maker. The verse is not calling anyone names. It is holding up a mirror. This is how the loud self sounds, and this is how it forgets the One who made it.
When you're busy proving how clever you are, what do you stop noticing?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI