Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Picture a watchman guarding a field that belongs to someone else. He works himself ragged protecting those crops —
but the field isn't his. When the season ends, he has to get up and leave, and none of the harvest ends up in his hands.
Guru Arjan gives a third picture: a watchman guarding a field that belongs to someone else.
The raakhaa, the watchman, works hard over the khayt, the field. But it is khasam kaa, the master's field. When his time is up, the watchman gets up and leaves. Tis kai paalai kachhoo na parhai — nothing ends up in his hands.
This joins the porter and the dream-king from the lines before. All our guarding and striving over the world's goods is care spent on what we do not finally keep. Think of a kid who guards the snack table all through a party, then goes home without tasting a thing.
Guru Arjan is not scolding anyone here. He is simply noticing how things are.
What are you working hard to protect that you might not get to keep?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI