ਮਃ ੫ ॥
mehlaa 5.
Fifth Mehl:
ਨਾਨਕ ਸਤਿਗੁਰਿ ਭੇਟਿਐ ਪੂਰੀ ਹੋਵੈ ਜੁਗਤਿ ॥
naanak satgur bhayti-ai pooree hovai jugat.
O Nanak, meeting the True Guru, one comes to know the Perfect Way.
ਹਸੰਦਿਆ ਖੇਲੰਦਿਆ ਪੈਨੰਦਿਆ ਖਾਵੰਦਿਆ ਵਿਚੇ ਹੋਵੈ ਮੁਕਤਿ ॥੨॥
hasandi-aa khaylandi-aa painandi-aa khaavandi-aa vichay hovai mukat. ||2||
While laughing, playing, dressing and eating, he is liberated. ||2||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Meeting the true teaching, one learns the perfect way.
Nanak says: laughing, playing, dressing and eating, he is set free.
Freedom isn't reserved for the grim ascetic — you can be laughing, eating, and playing, and free all the while.
One of the raag's most quietly radical lines: "while laughing, playing, dressing and eating, he is liberated." Freedom is not kept for the hermit who gives up laughter, food, and play — it is found in an ordinary, enjoyable life. The "perfect way" is not grim withdrawal but a liberated ordinariness: fully alive, eating and laughing and dressing, and free all the while. The householder ideal at its most joyful.
A Question to Sit With
Do you imagine 'the spiritual life' as joyless? What if it looked like a free, laughing, ordinary life?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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