Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Some people read the oldest, holiest books and still never taste the sweetness inside them — because they're caught in **Maya** (the glittering, grabbing pull of the world) and end up just arguing about who's right.
Arguing in the dark never lights the lamp. But the ones who turn toward the teaching actually understand — and the first thing they do with that understanding is sing.
Here the diagnosis sharpens. Vayd parheh har ras nahee aa-i-aa — they read the Vedas, the most revered scriptures, and still the taste of the One does not come. This is a stunning thing for a teacher in 15th-century India to say plainly: the holiest texts, read in the wrong spirit, deliver nothing. The text is not the problem; the reader steeped in Maya is.
And watch what Maya does to learning: vaad vakaaneh — it turns study into debate. The scholar caught in Maya reads in order to win, to be right, to out-argue. Scripture becomes ammunition. This is one of Guru Amar Das's recurring targets: the intellect that uses sacred knowledge to feed the ego rather than dissolve it. The more clever the argument, the thicker the darkness — agi-aanmatee sadaa andhi-aaraa, the foolish-minded forever in the dark.
The contrast lands in the final line, and it is worth noticing what the gurmukh does. They don't out-argue the pandit. They boojh har gaavania — understand, and sing. The opposite of arguing in the dark is not winning the argument; it is putting the book down and singing. Understanding, when it is real, doesn't bristle — it overflows into praise.
When you learn something true, do you reach to share its joy — or to prove you were right?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI