Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
How can a heart set on tearing others down ever cross into peace?
The harm it sends out keeps circling back and trapping the one who sends it.
This is the rahaa-o, the "pause" line. It is the center of the whole song.
Ravidas asks a hard question: saaDh kaa nindak kaisay tarai — how can someone who runs down good people ever cross over to peace? A saaDh is a good, holy person. A nindak is someone who keeps tearing others down.
The verse says such a person lands in narak, a place of great pain. The truth under that picture is simple. Ill-will traps the one who carries it. Think of someone who spends all day posting mean things about others online. Soon they feel sour and alone inside. That small, unhappy place is not a punishment sent from outside. It is what grows in a heart that spends itself tearing others down. That heart cannot find the very peace it keeps breaking in other people.
If someone is being unkind to you or hurting you, that is never something you have to accept. Telling a grown-up you trust is always the right thing to do.
How does speaking badly of others end up hurting the speaker most of all?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI