Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
This is how you cross the great ocean of the world.
And this is how you can be dead while still alive: the grasping, worried little self grows quiet.
The riddle has an answer: the way across is to let the grasping self grow quiet while you are fully alive.
This is the second Rahao, a second "pause" line, and it answers the first.
The first pause asked: how do I cross the ocean, and how can someone living also die? This one says: in biDh saagar taree-ai — this is how you cross. Jeevti-aa i-o maree-ai — this is how to "die" while living.
"This" means everything in between: seeing the fortress of worry, keeping the One quietly inside, and holding hope with open hands.
"Dying while living" never means harming the body. It means the grabbing, worried "me first" self goes quiet, so you can live free. The whole shabad sits between a question and its answer, like the two covers of a book.
What is one small way you could hold life a little more lightly?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI