Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The body is the fortress of the endless One; it is given only by destiny.
The One lives inside it and enjoys its pleasures; it stays detached and yet is somehow involved — unattached even while attached. It does whatever it pleases, and what it does comes to pass. Facing the teaching, one holds the Name, and the sense of separation ends.
The body is the home of the endless One. The One is inside everything, yet never gets tangled up in it.
Kaa-i-aa kot apaar hai — the body is the fort of the endless One. The body is not a trap to escape. It is a home where the One lives. Milnaa sanjogee — we get it only as a gift of destiny.
Then comes a puzzle about the One. Kaa-i-aa andar aap vas rahi-aa — the One lives inside the body and enjoys its pleasures. Yet aap ateet alipat hai — the One stays free and untouched.
Think of the sun shining into a muddy puddle. The light is right there in the mud, but the sun never gets dirty. The One is in everything, yet never stuck in it.
This is also how the raag hopes we will live. Be a householder, busy with family and work, fully in life, but never owned by it. And the way there is to hold the Name as a Gurmukh, one who faces the Guru. Then leh jaahi vijogee, the feeling of being apart from the One goes away.
What would it look like to be fully involved in your life yet not entangled or owned by it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI