Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
But this same body also holds **haumai** and "mine, mine" — the ego. As long as that's running the show, the endless circling of birth and death doesn't stop. The one who faces the light quiets that ego and holds the Truest of the True in awareness.
This verse says the ego also lives in the body, and it blocks our view of the Beloved inside.
The last verses showed the wonderful things in the inner home. So a fair question comes up. If all that is already inside me, why don't I feel it? Why do I feel alone, worried or stuck? This verse answers. Kaa-i-aa andar ha-umai mayraa — inside the kaa-i-aa, the body, there is also ha-umai, "I," and mayraa, "mine." The same home that holds the Beloved also holds the ego. And the ego blocks the view. The Beloved is in the room, but the ego stands in front of us, filling everything with "me, me, mine," so we never see past it.
The result: jaman maran na chookai fayraa — the circle of birth and death does not stop. While we think we are only the separate "me," we stay stuck going round and round. In the big picture, that is the cycle of being born again and again. In everyday life, it is the restlessness of a self that is always grabbing and never arriving. Think of a hamster on a wheel. It runs and runs but never gets anywhere. The ego is the wheel.
So what is the way out? The same move this whole raag keeps pointing to: gurmukh hovai so ha-umai maaray — whoever faces the Guru quiets the ego. In this shabad's picture, that is like someone finally stepping out of the doorway so you can see into the room. We do not have to build the Beloved or travel to find Him. He is already home. We only have to let the "me" step aside. Then sacho sach Dhi-aavani-aa — we keep the Truest of the True in mind. The going round and round stops, because we have come home.
How does being full of "me, mine, what I want" block you from noticing the good things — and people — already right in front of you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI