Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Serving the True Guru, I keep the True One in mind.
The work you do for the True Guru stands by you at the end.
Death cannot even touch the one the True One protects.
The Guru's teaching lit a lamp, and my mind woke up.
Those who follow only their own minds are false; without the Naam they wander about like restless ghosts.
They are like animals wrapped in human skin, dark inside.
The True One is in everything, and is seen through the True Word.
Nanak says: the Naam is the great treasure; the perfect Guru has shown it to me.
Serving the Guru lights a lamp inside, and the Naam turns out to be the great treasure.
This is the fourteenth pauri. Jamkaal, death, cannot touch the one the True One protects. Deevaa baali-aa: the Guru's teaching lights a lamp, and awareness wakes. Without the Naam, people wander like baytaali-aa, restless spirits. The hard words "animals in human skin" picture a heart that has forgotten its light, not a kind of person to look down on.
What lights up your understanding when everything feels dark and confusing?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI