Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Almost the whole world is wrapped up in clinging to **Maya**. That is the shiny, grabbing surface of things, the feeling that what glitters out there matters most.
As long as the three threads everything is woven from keep running you, you stay tangled in it.
But here and there, by grace, a few people wake up. They settle into a deeper, steadier place, a fourth kind of awareness that rests underneath all three threads.
This one says almost everyone is stuck on the shiny surface of things, and a few, by grace, wake up underneath it.
Maa-i-aa moh jagat sabaa-i-aa — the whole world is caught in moh, clinging, to Maya. Maya is the glittering surface of things that the mind mistakes for what matters most. Moh is the glue that sticks us to it. This isn't a few unlucky people. It is the normal state, like water a fish swims in without noticing.
The verse says how it works: tarai gun deeseh mohay maa-i-aa — those run by the three gun, the three qualities, are stuck in Maya. Old Indian teaching says everything is woven from three threads: restless busyness, heavy laziness, and bright goodness. As long as any one of them is in charge, you're still inside Maya, because Maya is made of those very threads. That's why just trying to be a bit better can't set you free. Moving from a worse thread to a nicer one is still moving around inside the same net. It's like switching from one video game level to another. You're still inside the game.
The way out comes in the last line: gur parsaadee ko virlaa boojhai cha-uthai pad liv laavani-aa — by the Guru's grace, a rare few understand, and they rest their attention in the cha-uthai pad, the fourth state. Teachers explain the fourth state as plain awareness. It watches all three threads without being grabbed by any of them. You don't reach it by climbing through the three. You wake up out of them, by grace. The verse is honest that only a few do. But rare doesn't mean closed. The door is there.
When you feel most caught in wanting things, which 'thread' is usually pulling — restlessness, heaviness, or even your own goodness?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI