Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Pride in one's own cleverness, and a big love for the glitter — these are the deep, chronic sicknesses.
The One's name is the medicine, strong enough to cure it all; the teaching gave me that Name.
The Panch-Pada opens with a striking diagnosis: the two "most serious chronic diseases" are "intellectual egotism" (pride in one's own smartness) and "great love for Maya." Naming them as diseases is compassionate — a sickness is treated, not condemned, and it is not the whole of who you are. And every disease named has its "medicine": the Name, "potent to cure everything." The raag's healing vocabulary reaches its clearest statement here — the human trouble is illness, and there is a cure.
If your recurring struggle were a treatable illness rather than a moral failing, how would you approach it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI