Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You made the world, and you set it spinning. You even handed out the 'drug' of attachment that gets everyone tangled and turned around — somehow that, too, is part of your game. Inside people a fire of wanting burns that is never satisfied — always hungry, always thirsty for more.
The whole show flickers like an illusion, dying and being reborn, coming and going. And that grip of attachment doesn't loosen without a true teacher; people wear themselves out on empty rituals trying.
But those who follow the teaching hold your Name in mind, fill up with a deep, glad peace, and rest in whatever you will. They lift whole families along with them — blessed are the mothers who gave them birth. How beautiful is the light in the ones who keep their eyes on you.
This Pauree speaks to the Creator about one of the most difficult truths in all of Gurbani: that even the delusion is somehow within the One's Play. You Yourself created the world, and You Yourself put it to work. Administering the drug of emotional attachment, You Yourself have led the world astray. Read carefully, this is startling — the One is named as the very one who administers the drug of moh, attachment, that intoxicates and misleads the world. The straying is not the work of a rival evil power; it happens within the One's single, all-encompassing Play.
Why would the One do this? The Vaar does not fully answer — it holds the mystery rather than solving it — but it describes the condition precisely: the fire of desire is deep within; unsatisfied, people remain hungry and thirsty. The trishna, the fire of craving, burns in every breast, and it is a fire that consuming fuel only feeds. The world flickers like an illusion, dying and being reborn, and inside this dream the craving never rests.
And here is the hinge of the whole Pauree: without the True Guru, emotional attachment is not broken. All have grown weary of performing empty rituals. If the One administered the drug, the One has also provided the antidote — the Guru. No ritual breaks the grip of attachment; people exhaust themselves trying. Only the Guru's teaching loosens it. And those who follow it hold the Name, fill with joyful peace, and surrender to the Will — and the fruit overflows beyond them: they save their families and ancestors; blessed are the mothers who gave them birth. One soul freed from the fire lifts a whole lineage, and even the mother who bore such a soul is called blessed. The drug and the cure are both within the Play — and the cure is the Guru.
What 'fire of wanting' burns in you that no amount of feeding ever satisfies — and what might actually cool it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI