Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Heavy iron is carried across the river on a wooden raft. In the same way, people who have done wrong are carried across in the Sangat of the holy, with the Guru, the True Guru, the holy Guru.
There are four castes, four classes of society, and four stages of life. Whoever meets the Guru, Guru Nanak, crosses over, and carries the whole family line across too.
Anyone at all can be carried across. No birth, class or label holds anyone back.
First, a picture. Iron is heavy, and alone it sinks. But set it on a wooden raft, kaasat sang lohaa, "iron with wood," and it floats across the river. The Sangat of the Guru is that raft. Even the heaviest heart gets carried.
Then the verse names the old ways of sorting people: chaar baran chaar aasram. Baran means castes, the groups people were born into. Aasram means the four stages of life. Back then, these labels decided a lot about a person.
The verse names them only to set them aside. Whoever meets the Guru, hai ko-ee milai guroo, is carried across, with their whole family too. Think of a school bus that stops for every kid on the street. It does not ask whose house is biggest. Everyone gets on.
Why does it matter that a path be open to absolutely everyone?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI