Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those cut off from the One, living in what's fake, just don't like the truth — it makes them uncomfortable, so they avoid it. Caught in two-mindedness, always torn, they keep going round and round, never settling. No one can simply wipe away what's already written into their pattern — but the one who turns toward the light gets set free.
You do not get free by erasing your past. You get free by no longer letting it run your life.
Saakat koorhay sach na bhaavai — the saakat, stuck in what is false, do not like the truth. Saakat here means someone cut off from the One. It is about a state of the heart, not about any group of people. And this is a sharp look at how people work. Truth can feel uncomfortable. Suppose you have built your life on a fake story. "I only matter if I win." "I have to be better than everyone." Then the truth — that you are already whole, already held, already loved — feels scary. It knocks down the story you worked so hard on. So people sometimes run from the very thing that would free them. Not because they are foolish. Because the truth costs the ego too much.
DubiDhaa baaDhaa aavai jaavai — tied up in dubiDhaa, they come and go. DubiDhaa means a divided mind. Wanting two opposite things. Never fully choosing. Pulled between what the ego demands and what the heart quietly knows. Think of a tug-of-war going on inside you. A divided mind can never rest, because half of it always pulls against the other half. The last verse said the ego finds no resting place. "Coming and going" means being born again and again. It also means the restless back-and-forth of a mind that never lands.
Then a line that needs care. Likhi-aa laykh na maytai ko-ee — no one can erase what has been written. Gurmukh mukat karaavani-aa — the gurmukh, the one who faces the Guru, is set free. This does not mean "your future is fixed, so give up." It is Guru Nanak being honest. You cannot just delete your past, your habits, how you were shaped. That is real, and wishing will not make it vanish.
But here is the hope. Turning toward the Guru does not erase your past. It frees you from being ruled by it. Think of a scar from an old fall. The scar stays. But it no longer stops you from running. The pattern stays written, but it no longer runs your life. You do not have to undo who you have been to become free. You only have to turn your face toward the light now.
Sometimes the truth is uncomfortable because it costs our pride something. Is there a truth about yourself you've been quietly avoiding because facing it feels too expensive?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI