Not How Hard You Work, but Whether It's Real

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This verse says working hard is not enough; what matters is whether we spend our effort on what is true.

It starts a picture that carries into the next verse: writing. Likh-di-aa likh-di-aa kaagad mas kho-ee — writing and writing until the kaagad (paper) and mas (ink) run out. It is a picture of a life spent producing: endless effort, page after page. Think of filling notebook after notebook, working without a break, piling up a great heap of something. And the verse asks the one question that matters: what are you writing?

For this person, the answer is sad. Koorh likheh tai koorh kamaaveh — they write koorh and they live koorh. Koorh means what is false and doesn't last, the opposite of sach, what is true. It is everything flimsy, the ego's castles that look strong but crumble. So this person pours all their energy into things that are not real: showing off, piling up money, chasing fame. The root is named: doojai bhaa-ay sukh paa-ay na ko-ee — through love of "the second thing," anything apart from the One, no one finds peace.

The ending is stark: jal jaaveh koorh chit laavani-aa — they burn to ashes by fixing their attention on the false. Why "burn"? Because the false cannot last. A life built only on it goes up in smoke when those passing things fall away, like the crow's empty house in the verse before. All that paper and ink, and in the end, ashes. The sadness here is not laziness. This person worked hard and filled every page. But they wrote the wrong thing. Earlier shabads gave the same warning, about a trader with the wrong goods and a dancer performing only for show. Effort and skill are not enough if they are aimed at the false. The next verse shows the other way.