Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
It's as if I keep choosing the twisting, roundabout way.
I leave the straight, clear path and double back on myself, weaving the wrong direction.
Guru Arjan says we often work hard in the very direction that tangles us, when the straight path is right there.
The pictures are about paths and weaving. Baavai maarag is the crooked road. Tay-dhaa chalnaa is walking bent and sideways. Seedhaa chhod is leaving the straight road. Apoothaa bunnaa is weaving backwards.
Together they show a life working against its own grain. It is like knitting a scarf and pulling the wrong stitch again and again, so all your effort just makes knots.
There is no cruelty in this. It is the gentle self-recognition the whole shabad invites: look how I make the simple thing complicated. And the straight path is always open.
When have you made something harder than it needed to be, and what would the simple way have looked like?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI