Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The self-centered mind is like an upside-down lotus — closed to devotion, closed to the Name.
Wrapped up in wealth, all its efforts come to nothing; nothing softens inside, and its words come out flat. It won't keep company with the good; inside are falseness and me-first. Nanak says: the One arranged it so that lies drown a person and the Name saves.
The Shalok pictures the closed heart as "the inverted lotus" — a flower turned away from the light, unable to open or receive. Everything about the self-enclosed life is flat: efforts "false," words "insipid," the heart un-softened. The remedy implied is simply to turn the lotus back toward the light — to open to the Name and to good company.
Is any part of your heart 'turned away,' closed off? What would turning it back toward the light take?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI