Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Sometimes a mind gets so turned around that it treats what's good for it as if it were the enemy, and hears the truth as something to spit out.
Twisted up that way, it can't even tell winning from losing anymore. That's what happens when we live cut off, forgetting the One who connects us all.
This one describes how a mind gets turned around when it lives cut off from the One.
The word is saakat. It means someone living cut off from the One. It is a state anyone can slip into, not a bad kind of person.
In that state, the mind gets everything backwards. jo bhalaa-ee so buraa jaanai — what is good for it, it thinks is bad. saach kahai so bikhai samaanai — when someone tells it the truth, it hears poison. It cannot even tell winning from losing.
Think of a phone map turned upside down. You walk confidently the wrong way. The street is fine. The map is flipped.
The verse names this confusion kindly. It is a diagnosis, like a doctor's, not a scolding. Anyone can fall into it.
Have you ever pushed away good advice because it stung — and regretted it later?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI