Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who tear others down come undone in a moment; they're not spared.
The One will not stand by while its servants suffer; it holds the slanderers to their own consequences and leaves them on death's road, crying in the dark. But hugging its servants close to its heart, Nanak says, the True One saves them.
The twenty-first Pauree is fierce about slander — but its heat is protective love, not cruelty. The vivid punishment-imagery for those who "tear others down" expresses one thing: "God will not endure the sufferings of His slaves." The One defends those who love it like a parent defending a child. And the verse ends not on the slanderers but on the tenderest image in the Vaar: "hugging His slaves close to His Heart... the True Lord saves them." The severity toward harm is the flip side of fierce tenderness toward the harmed.
Does it comfort you to imagine being defended and held close, like a child, by something that loves you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI