You Cannot Put Out Craving by Feeding It

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This verse says that without the True One at the center, nothing satisfies, and only the Word can put out the fire of wanting inside us.

The verse repeats one phrase again and again, like a drumbeat: "vin sachay," without the True One. The point is that the One isn't one ingredient among many in a good life. The One is the center. Without it, everything else slides into falseness. "Vin sachay sabh koorh" — without the True One, all is false. "Vin sachay tan chhaar" — the body is just ashes. "Vin sachay sabh bhukh je paijhai khaa-ee-ai" — without the True One, whatever we wear and eat leaves us hungry. Take the One from the center, and even real things like food and clothes lose their meaning. It's like a bicycle wheel without its hub. The spokes just fall apart.

The verse names the trap. "Koorhai laalach lag mahal khu-aa-ee-ai" — stuck on false greed, the mahal, the One's home, is lost. It isn't the world itself that keeps the soul from home. It's clinging to the world, mistaking what passes for what lasts. So "sabh jag thagi-o thag aa-ee-ai jaa-ee-ai" — the whole world is tricked by trickery, coming and going. Fooled by how things look, it goes round and round.

But the verse ends with the key. "Tan meh tarisnaa ag sabad bujhaa-ee-ai" — inside the body is the fire of tarisnaa, craving; through the Word it is put out. That's the problem and the fix in one line. Craving burns inside us and is never satisfied. More fuel won't help. Getting what we crave only feeds the flames, like throwing paper on a campfire. The sabad, the Word, is what puts it out at the root. That's why, without the True One, nothing satisfies. And with the Word, the fire finally goes out, and the soul, no longer pushed around, comes home.