The Self That Need Not Keep Struggling

ਹਉਮੈ ਮੇਰਾ ਮਰੀ ਮਰੁ ਮਰਿ ਜੰਮੈ ਵਾਰੋ ਵਾਰ ॥

ha-umai mayraa maree mar mar jammai vaaro vaar.

Dying in egotism and self-conceit, one dies, and dies again, only to be reincarnated over and over again.

ਗੁਰ ਕੈ ਸਬਦੇ ਜੇ ਮਰੈ ਫਿਰਿ ਮਰੈ ਨ ਦੂਜੀ ਵਾਰ ॥

gur kai sabday jay marai fir marai na doojee vaar.

But when he dies in the Word of the Guru's Shabad, then he does not die, ever again.

ਗੁਰਮਤੀ ਜਗਜੀਵਨੁ ਮਨਿ ਵਸੈ ਸਭਿ ਕੁਲ ਉਧਾਰਣਹਾਰ ॥੪॥

gurmatee jagjeevan man vasai sabh kul uDhaaranhaar. ||4||

When he follows the Guru's Teachings, and enshrines the Lord, the Life of the World, within his mind, he redeems all his generations. ||4||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

When I live only for me, me, I stay stuck, circling the same struggles again and again.

But when the grasping self quietly melts in the Guru's word, that endless circling stops. Holding the One who is the life of everything, I lift myself and everyone connected to me.

When the grasping self relaxes, the circling struggle ends.

The deeper layer

Ha-umai is the voice inside that keeps saying "me, me, mine." Living by ha-umai means dying and being born again and again. We can see it as getting stuck in the same struggles over and over, like a game level you keep failing.

But gur kai sabday jay marai: when that "me" melts away in the Guru's word, the circling stops for good. Then jagjeevan, the One who is the Life of the world, lives in the heart. And sabh kul uDhaaranhaar: that person lifts their whole family line.

One healed heart sends ripples out to everyone around it. The ego is like an illness to heal, not a crime to punish.

A Question to Sit With

What is a struggle you keep repeating, and what might help it settle?

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI

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