Verse 2 of 3
The Root Foolishness: Abandoning the Source of Your Breath
ਜਿਨਿ ਕੀਆ ਤਿਸੁ ਸਿਮਰਿ ਪਰਾਨੀ ਜੀਉ ਪ੍ਰਾਨ ਜਿਨਿ ਧਾਰਾ ॥
jin kee-aa tis simar paraanee jee-o paraan jin Dhaaraa.
Remember the One who created you, O mortal; He is the Support of your soul, and the breath of life.
ਤਿਸਹਿ ਤਿਆਗਿ ਅਵਰ ਲਪਟਾਵਹਿ ਮਰਿ ਜਨਮਹਿ ਮੁਗਧ ਗਵਾਰਾ ॥੧॥
tiseh ti-aag avar laptaavahi mar janmeh mugaDh gavaaraa. ||1||
One who forsakes Him, and attaches himself to another, dies to be reborn; he is such an ignorant fool! ||1||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Remember the One who made you — it is the support of your soul, your breath.
The one who abandons it and clings to a substitute lives foolishly and keeps circling.
The root foolishness is abandoning the source of your very breath to cling to a substitute that can't support you.
The verse contrasts remembering the Maker ("the Support of your soul, and the breath of life") with clinging to "another" — a substitute that leaves a person "an ignorant fool" going in circles. The wisdom is orientation: turn toward the source of your very breath, not toward the substitutes that cannot support you. Forgetting the source for a substitute is the root foolishness the raag keeps naming.
A Question to Sit With
What substitute do you sometimes cling to instead of the source that actually holds you up?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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