Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In a dream he enjoys every pleasure, and attachment feels so sweet.
Nanak, without the Name, the beauty of illusion is fake.
The dream deepens: inside it, "he enjoys all sorts of pleasures, and emotional attachment seems so sweet." That is the trap of the dream — while you're in it, the sweetness feels utterly real, which is exactly why it's so hard to wake from. Guru Arjan is not denying that the pleasures feel good; he's saying their beauty is "fake" in the sense of unreal, unlasting — a sweetness that evaporates on waking. The warning is compassionate: enjoy what comes, but don't be fooled into thinking the dream-sweetness is the real thing, or you'll grieve when you wake.
Why is a pleasant dream so hard to wake from? How might that be like getting lost in things that don't last?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI