Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Someone thinks of money at the very end. They leave this life still worried about it.
So they come back again and again, like a snake curled around its gold.
This line says that what fills your mind all your life is what you carry at the end.
This shabad (hymn) is by Trilochan, a saint whose words are in the Guru Granth Sahib. He says: ant kaal jo lachhmee simrai — whoever thinks of lachhmee, wealth, at the last moment, and leaves this life in that worry, comes back again and again as a snake. The old picture is of a snake curled around buried treasure, unable to let it go.
The pictures of being born again are strong. But the lesson inside them fits everyone: where your attention goes every day is where you end up.
Think of a song you practice on the piano every day. When you sit down without thinking, that is the tune your fingers play. What you rehearse your whole life is what rises in you at the end. The end shows what the heart was really fixed on, and carries it forward.
What does your mind drift to in unguarded moments? Is that where you'd want to be 'carried'?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI