Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
A person can eat, watch, listen, and dress up to impress.
Every day gets filled with the show of things, in a home that does not last.
But without the Guru's Word, I never get to know myself.
And the Name is what carries me gently past every fear of ending.
Eating, watching and dressing up are fine, but they cannot tell you who you are.
The verse shows a busy person. They eat and enjoy. They listen and watch. They dress up to show off. And all of it happens in kaal gharay, "the house of time," a home that does not last forever.
Think of a phone full of games and videos. You can scroll all day and still feel like you have not met yourself.
Bin gur sabad na aap pachhaanai: "without the Guru's Word, a person does not know himself." The Guru's Shabad means the Guru's Word, the teaching. Aap pachhaanai means knowing who you really are.
And the Name of the One is what carries a person safely across. Enjoying life is not the problem. The problem is stopping at the show and never looking deeper.
What is one way to know yourself better, beyond the daily show?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI