Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who never receive the sight of the true teacher have a hard road laid out for them.
Lost in loving two things at once, they keep circling, and their lives pass to no purpose.
The sober counter-verse. Those who miss the teacher's darshan are caught in "the love of duality" (dubidhaa) — the divided heart that tries to love the One and the illusion at once, and so is torn, circling, never at rest. This is not condemnation; it is a description of a genuine trap. A heart divided between two masters gets neither, and "passes its life uselessly" — not because it is wicked, but because it never gathered itself toward one thing. Guru Ram Das names the pain of the divided life honestly, and by naming it, points past it toward the single-hearted peace the previous verse described.
What happens when you try to want two opposite things at once? Why is a divided heart so restless?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI