Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The truth-speaking teaching is a pool of pure nectar; bathe in it, and the crow comes out a swan.
Nanak says: blessed and truly lucky are the ones who, by the teaching, wash the grime off their hearts with the Name.
The redemptive turn, and one of Ram Das's loveliest images: the very crow of P3, if it bathes in the pool of the true teaching, becomes a swan — the bird of discernment that (in the old image) can separate milk from water. No one is written off; the dung-eater can be transformed. Change is not achieved by shame but by bathing — immersion in the teaching and the Name that slowly washes and re-trains the heart. The shabad ends in blessing, not warning.
What good thing could you 'bathe in' regularly enough that it slowly changes what you're drawn to?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI