You Can Consume Till the Body Wears Out and Miss the Point
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Eating and eating, the mouth wears out; wearing clothes, the body tires.
Nanak says: wasted are the lives of those never tuned to the love of the True One.
A memento-mori about consumption: you can eat until "the mouth is worn out" and dress until "the limbs grow weary," and still a life spent only on consuming is "cursed" — wasted, empty of the one thing that fills. The point is not that eating and clothing are bad, but that a life reduced to them misses its purpose. Consumption alone cannot fill a life; only love of the True One can. "Cursed" here means wasted, per the raag's usage.
If your life were reduced to consuming, what essential thing would be missing? How do you keep it present?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI