Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
This body doesn't last — it's like a piece of cheap cloth that wears out, and the clothes it wears wear out too. A soul stuck on the "second thing," chasing the many instead of the One, never reaches the inner palace where the Beloved lives. So it burns with restlessness, day and night, aching badly because it is apart from the One it secretly loves.
This verse is honest about the body: it doesn't last. So don't build your whole life on it.
Kaa-i-aa kachee kachaa cheer — the body is passing, and so are its clothes. Kachee is the key word. It comes from the same root as kachaa, the cheap dye that fades. The body is real, but it wears out, like a favorite T-shirt that thins with every wash. This isn't hating the body. It is simply seeing clearly. If you build who you are on looks, strength or youth, you build on cloth that is already fraying. The verse asks you to notice this calmly.
Doojai laagee mahal na paa-ay — stuck on the second thing, the soul never reaches the mahal, the palace where the Beloved lives. Dooja means "the second" — anything chased in place of the One. This palace isn't in some faraway heaven. It is the inner room of your own being, where the One already lives, as the next verses show. A soul stuck on outside things can't find the inside palace. It keeps looking the wrong way.
The last line brings back Raag Maajh's deep ache: an-din jaldee firai — burning and wandering, night and day. This is viraha, the pain of being apart from the Beloved. The Guru doesn't pretend it isn't real. But the tradition hides a secret in it. That ache is a soul that already belongs to the Beloved, feeling that something is wrong while apart. A heart that didn't love wouldn't ache. The ache itself proves the love.
What parts of "who you are" are actually temporary — looks, being the fastest, the newest thing you own? What in you might be more lasting to build on?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI