Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The True One, unseen and beyond knowing, is not won over by stubborn force.
Some sing the old raags, but the One is not moved by raags.
Some dance and dance and keep the beat, but they do not worship with love.
Some refuse to eat. What can be done with such foolish people?
Their thirst and wanting have grown huge, and nothing satisfies them.
Some are tied up in rituals and wear themselves out to the end.
In this world, the profit is drinking the nectar of the Naam.
Those who follow the Guru come together in loving devotion to the One.
The unseen One opens to loving devotion and the nectar of the Naam; stubborn force wins nothing.
This is the seventeenth pauri. It turns to religious performance itself: raags, dance, fasting, ritual. Hath, stubborn force, does not win the alakh, the unseen One. The positive turn is bhagti, loving devotion, which those who follow the Guru share together. The same point holds for religious display everywhere, including in one's own tradition.
When has trying harder made something worse instead of better?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI