Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Coin by coin you pile up money, working every angle for it.
Forgetting the One, you carry a measureless ache, and the Great Enticer eats away at you.
The verse diagnoses the treadmill of accumulation — "shell by shell you accumulate money" — and names its hidden cost: "awful pain beyond measure" and being "consumed by the Great Enticer, Maya." The pain is measureless precisely because the wanting has no end; each coin adds to the pile and to the hunger. Forgetting the One isn't punished by an outside hand; the forgetting is the ache. The glitter doesn't just distract — it slowly consumes the one who serves it.
Is there a 'pile' you keep adding to, hoping it will finally feel like enough? Does it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI