Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In this life, like a young bride still in her parents' home, the soul has lost her way in doubt.
She holds on to 'two-ness,' as if she were separate from the One, and later she is full of regret.
She loses the peace of this life and the next. She finds rest nowhere, not even in her dreams.
This one is about a soul who spends her one season in doubt and is sorry later.
Here the song turns to a picture that is the heartbeat of Raag Maajh: the soul-bride. The soul is a young bride, and the One is her Beloved Husband. In old Punjab, a girl lived in her parents' home, the pay-ee-arhai, before she married and moved to her new home. So the parents' home stands for this life, the season before the big move. The new home stands for what comes after.
This verse shows a bride who wastes that season. Pay-ee-arhai Dhan bharam bhulaanee — in her parents' home, the bride is lost in bharam, doubt, the fog that comes from forgetting who she belongs to. Doojai laagee fir pachhotaanee — stuck on doojaa, "the second," the feeling of being separate from the One, she later regrets it. The regret comes too late, when the season is over and can't be lived again. It's like a summer holiday spent scrolling a phone, and then it's September.
The cost is big: halat palat dovai gavaa-ay — she loses both this world and the next. Supnai sukh na paavani-aa — even in her dreams she finds no peace. This isn't a punishment from outside. It is what happens when a life faces the wrong way. Read it gently. The bride isn't wicked. She is foggy with doubt, chasing surfaces, never quite turning toward the One who was hers all along. So peace can't reach her, awake or asleep. The next verse shows the other bride, and the only difference between them is which way she turned.
If this life is one precious 'season,' is there a way you're spending it looking at the wrong things?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI