Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
There is only One. And the One is found by the True Guru's grace — a gift that is always here, waiting for an open heart.
Someone can be born into the “right” family, follow every rule and ritual perfectly, and look impressive from the outside.
But if there is no love for the One in their heart, if talk of the divine bores them and means nothing — then all their fine standing counts for nothing at all.
What makes a person truly high or low is never their birth. It is only what lives in their heart.
What makes a person high or low is love in the heart, not the family they are born into.
Khat karam are six religious duties that high-born priests were expected to keep. Kul means family, and here it means a family counted as high. Ravidas says someone can have both and still have har bhagat hirdai naahi: no love for the One in the heart. Then that person is no higher than the one society calls an outcaste.
In Ravidas's day, people were ranked by birth. Ravidas came from a community that others looked down on. So he turns that ranking upside down. The one born "high" but empty of love is no higher than the one the world scorns.
Think of a team jersey. Wearing the right jersey does not make you a good player. What counts is how you play. Turning the ranking by birth upside down is the beating heart of this shabad. Ravidas uses the word "outcaste" only to flip the unfair thinking of his time on its head.
Have you ever seen someone judged by where they came from instead of who they really are?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI