Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
A mind gets dirty from loving "the second thing" — chasing whatever feels separate from the One.
When the mind is dirty, then even a carefully scrubbed kitchen counts as filthy, and the cleanest spot is unclean.
Feeding on that inner grime, the ego-facing person only piles on *more* of it. And all that filth becomes their suffering.
You can scrub every surface until it shines and still be dirty, because the stain that matters is in the heart.
This verse is the dark mirror of the song. In Guru Amar Das's time, many people cared a great deal about outer cleanness for holy reasons. They kept a specially cleaned cha-ukaa, the square where food was cooked. They followed careful rules about what could touch what. There is nothing wrong with a clean kitchen. But this verse turns the idea inside out, aiming at cleanness that is only on the outside.
Man mailaa hai doojai bhaa-ay — the mind is made dirty by doojai bhaa-ay, the love of "a second thing." That means the feeling of being apart from the One.
Mailaa cha-ukaa mailai thaa-ay — then the kitchen is dirty, and the place is dirty. Why? Because the real dirt was never on the floor. It was in the heart. You could scrub every counter and still not be clean, if the mind is full of grabbing and feeling apart.
This is a brave teaching. Another shabad says the same about bathing at holy places. It moves all real cleanness from the outside to the inside. No ceremony, however careful, reaches the real stain, because the real stain lives in the mind. Any child can feel this. You can have clean hands and an unkind heart, and it is the heart that matters.
Then the verse shows a sad loop. Mailaa khaa-ay fir mail vaDhaa-ay — eating dirt, they add more dirt. The manmukh, the person facing their own ego, keeps feeding on the very things that make them dirty. Grabbing, grudges, feeling apart. Each "meal" adds more grime instead of filling them up. Think of eating junk food when you are hungry. You feel worse, so you eat more, and it keeps going. Other shabads use the picture of eating poison. The food is the sickness.
Manmukh mail dukh paavni-aa — because of this dirt, they suffer. This is said plainly, not cruelly. The dirt is not a punishment sent from outside. The dirt inside simply is the pain. And there is kindness hidden in it, because there is a way out. Stop trying to clean only the floor. Let the Guru's Word clean the heart.
Where do people focus on looking clean or proper on the outside while ignoring what's going on inside? Where might you do that?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI