Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
It's a strange trick the mind plays: what really belongs to someone else, I start treating as mine. And the very things I'll one day have to let go of — those are exactly the things my heart gets stuck on.
Guru Arjan names a trick the mind plays: we hold on hardest to the things we cannot keep.
This shabad begins a new set, so it opens with its own Ik Onkar Satgur Prasaad: there is One, known by the Guru's grace.
Jo paraa-i-o so-ee apnaa — what belongs to someone else, we call our own. We get attached to what is borrowed and does not last, like health, things and status. We forget they are only on loan.
Jo taj chhodan — what we will have to leave behind. This is not a threat. It is a plain fact: some things simply cannot be kept. And the mind's habit is to cling hardest to exactly those things.
Think of a library book you love so much you start calling it "my book." It is still due back one day. You can enjoy it fully and still hold it lightly.
What is something you love that is really only borrowed, and how might holding it gently change how you enjoy it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI