ਜੈਸੇ ਬਾਜੇ ਬਿਨੁ ਨਹੀ ਲੀਜੈ ਫੇਰੀ ॥
jaisay baajay bin nahee leejai fayree.
Just as without music, there is no dancing,
ਖਸਮਿ ਦੁਹਾਗਨਿ ਤਜਿ ਅਉਹੇਰੀ ॥
khasam duhaagan taj a-uhayree.
the bride rejected by her husband is dishonored.
ਕਹੈ ਕਬੀਰੁ ਏਕੈ ਕਰਿ ਕਰਨਾ ॥
kahai kabeer aikai kar karnaa.
Says Kabir, do this one thing:
ਗੁਰਮੁਖਿ ਹੋਇ ਬਹੁਰਿ ਨਹੀ ਮਰਨਾ ॥੪॥੬॥੯॥
gurmukh ho-ay bahur nahee marnaa. ||4||6||9||
become Gurmukh, and you shall never die again. ||4||6||9||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Just as there's no dancing without the music to carry it, a life cut off from the One loses its music too.
So do just this one thing: turn your face fully toward the teaching. Live from it — and you step past the whole fear of ending.
Do one thing — live turned toward the teaching — and the fear of ending falls away.
The close gathers all the images into one clear instruction: aikai kar karnaa — do this one thing. Become gurmukh — turned toward the teaching, living from it — and bahur nahee marnaa, you move past the fear of death entirely. After a dozen 'you can't without...' images, the shabad ends with a single 'you can' — a doorway, not a wall.
A Question to Sit With
If you could pick just one thing to point your whole life toward, what would you choose?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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