Don't Lose This One Life in the Gamble

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

The image at the end of this verse is one your boys will instantly understand: "janam na joo-ai haari" — they don't lose their life in the gamble. Life is pictured as a game of dice, and the one who serves the One does not lose this precious human birth in it. Commentators fill in the picture: a life can be spent betting on things that don't pay out — status, winning arguments, looking cool, accumulating stuff — and the panch vikaar are exactly those losing bets, promising a jackpot and leaving you empty-handed.

The winning move, by contrast, is almost embarrassingly simple: "rasna jap jap jeevai" — the tongue lives by saying the Name. Notice it doesn't say the tongue should occasionally say the Name; it says the tongue lives by it, the way lungs live by breathing. Simran isn't an extra task added on top of life; it's what the tongue is for, its truest function. A tongue used for cruelty or constant complaint is a tongue not really alive; a tongue holding the One is doing its real work.

And underneath it all: "antarjaamee" — the inner-knower. The One sees inside you completely. This could be frightening, but in this shabad's warm register it's reassuring: when you serve the One, you're serving someone who already knows you fully and loves you anyway. You're not performing for an audience that can be fooled; you're in relationship with the one being who can never misunderstand you. That's why "jin sevia tin hee sukh paaia" — serving the One brings peace: it's the relief of being fully known and fully accepted at the same time.