Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The glitter is a serpent coiled around the world.
Whoever serves it gets swallowed in the end. But the one who faces the teaching is a snake-charmer — they pin it down and tread it underfoot. Nanak says: only those absorbed in the True One are safe.
A vivid Shalok: Maya as a serpent that "devours" whoever serves it. But the Gurmukh is a "snake-charmer" who masters it — not by fleeing the snake but by having the power (the One's remembrance) to hold it down. The glitter is dangerous only to those who serve it; to the one rooted in the One, it becomes something to command, not fear.
What 'serpent' has power over you only because you keep serving it? What would mastering it look like?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI