Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Without a teacher to show the way, life is like a room with no light at all — pitch black. A person who can't see the One stumbles around in that darkness. A little worm born in filth keeps living in filth, eats filth, and never knows there's anything else — because no one ever showed it the door out.
This verse paints life without a guide as pitch dark, and it does it with pity, not scorn.
Bistaa kay keerhay — worms in the muck. The worm is not being insulted. It is being pitied. It does not know it lives in filth. It was born there and surrounded by it. With no light and no guide, it cannot even picture clean air and open sky. The sadness is all in not knowing. It is not a bad worm. It is a stuck one.
Baajh guroo hai anDh gubaaraa — without the Guru, there is only anDh gubaaraa, pitch darkness. Agi-aanee means one without the knowing that would show them the One. In the dark we cannot tell clean from dirty, near from far, real from fake. We just keep doing whatever is around us, because we cannot picture anything else. The verse repeats the word: anDhaa anDh anDhaaraa — blind, blind, blindness. The repeating shows how complete the dark is when no light breaks it. Think of trying to find your shoes in a room with the lights off. You keep bumping into the same things.
But read this verse next to the ones around it. The verse before said the spotless One lifts all dirt. The verse after will say freedom is catching. So this dark picture is not a final verdict on anyone. It shows life before the light comes, so we will long for the light. The worm only looks hopeless because it has not met the Guru yet. No one is stuck in the muck forever. They just have not been shown the door yet.
Has someone ever shown you a "way out" of something you didn't even realize you were stuck in?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI