Sin and Virtue Are Brothers, Not Enemies

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This verse says good deeds and bad deeds are like two brothers, and real freedom is rising above keeping score.

This idea may surprise you. Kaa-i-aa andar paap punn du-ay bhaa-ee — inside the body live two brothers: paap, wrongdoing, and punn, good deeds that earn credit. Calling them brothers is the key. We usually think of good and bad as enemies at war. The Guru says they are more like siblings from the same family. And that family is the ego, living in a world split in two.

Here is the deep point. Both brothers can keep us stuck, in opposite ways. Wrongdoing clearly tangles us up in harm. But good deeds done for the ego can also keep us stuck. The ego collects them like trophies: "Look how good I am." That feeds the very "me" that keeps us going round. An earlier shabad showed a proud traveler who came home dirtier. Both brothers tie us to a world of doing-to-get: "I did this, so I should get that." Duhee mil kai sarisat upaa-ee — the two together made this whole world of trading and getting.

So the goal is surprising: dovai maar — quiet both brothers, not just the bad one. This does not mean stop doing good! It means stop letting the ego run a scoreboard. Think of helping a friend. Do you help to be thanked, or just because you care? The second kind of help needs no points. When both the wrongdoer and the proud good-doer go quiet, ikat ghar aavai — we come home to the One. And gurmat sahj samaavani-aa — through the Guru's teaching, we melt into easy peace. Then good actions keep flowing, not as trophies, but as the natural spill-over of a heart that has come home and has nothing left to prove.