Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When you face only your own ego, it's like being blind — you can't see what really matters. Everyone who is born will one day die, yet the person facing the wrong way never lets that simple truth wake them up. They can perform all the religious actions in the world, but if they never touch the living Name of the One, the whole life slips through their hands.
This stanza deepens the picture of the manmukh from the last one. Now the word is andhe — blind. Not blind in the eyes, but blind in seeing what is real. They look right at the biggest fact there is — that we all die — and somehow it doesn't register. Guru Amar Das is gentle but clear: remembering death isn't morbid; it's the thing that makes life precious and wakes you up to Naam.
Notice the careful distinction between karam (ritual actions, ceremonies) and Naam (the living presence of the One in everything). You can do every ceremony perfectly and still miss the point entirely, the same way you can sing every word of a song without ever feeling it. Naam isn't an action you perform; it's a reality you keep alive inside you — what the tradition calls simran, holding the One awake in your heart.
"Without the Name, they lose this life in vain." This is the cost laid out plainly. A whole human life — rare, precious, full of chances to wake up — can pass without ever touching the one thing that makes it real. The blindness isn't a punishment sent from outside; it's just what happens when you keep facing your own ego and never turn.
What's something true that you "know" but don't really let change how you live?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI