Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Everyone is full of hoping; hardly anyone is free of it.
Nanak says: blessed is the birth of the one who, while still alive, has died to their own wanting.
Nearly everyone is filled with restless hoping, aasaa. Blessed is the one who has stilled that grasping while still alive. Dying while alive means letting the wanting self go quiet; it is about freedom, never about wishing to stop living. It means being unhooked from constant reaching, light and at peace in the present.
This is the first of a pair of Third Mehl shaloks on hope, and it echoes the Kabir shalok earlier in the Vaar about the one who is dead while yet alive.
What is one wish you could set down and feel lighter without?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI