Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Someone who eats only plain, dry bread but keeps the One alive in their heart sees that One everywhere — inside themselves and out in the world. But someone who feasts on every rich thing while doing harm to others is like a garden that only grows poison. What you feed your heart matters far more than what you feed your stomach.
The previous line measured a place by whether naam was awake there. Now Guru Arjan measures a person the same way — and overturns our instinct again. We assume the well-fed, comfortable person is the lucky one. He says: the one with dry bread but a remembering heart is the rich one, because "har antar baahar nadar nihaale" — they actually see the One, inside and outside. Remembrance opens the eyes.
The contrast is sharp: "khaa-ay khaa-ay karay badfailee" — eating and eating while doing wrong. Such a life is "visoo kee vaarhee," a field that grows poison. The point is not that food or comfort is bad. The point is that abundance with a forgotten heart turns toxic; it grows the panch vikaar (the five distortions — greed, ego, attachment) instead of love. Simplicity with an awake heart grows life.
Many traditions repeat this — "man does not live by bread alone." But Guru Arjan's image is gardener-precise: your life is a field, and what you've planted in your heart is what it will grow, no matter how much you pour into it.
If your life were a garden, what have you been planting in it lately?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI