Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You set a sacred stone in front of you,
but your mind wanders off in all ten directions.
You put the tilak mark on it and fall at its feet.
You do it to please the people watching, and you act without seeing.
Worship done for the people watching, with the mind far away, is only a show.
Saal giraam is the shaligram, a sacred stone honored by many Hindu families. The warning is aimed at the split between an outward act and an absent heart — lok pachaaraa, doing it for the crowd — never at any one tradition. The same warning lands on show-worship in every tradition, Sikh practice included.
When do you do things because they matter, and when just because someone's watching?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI