Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Gather your scattered attention and let it melt into deep focus on the One. Make your body a raft to carry you across.
There is a fire of wanting deep inside you; keep it in check. Then, day and night, the lamp will burn without growing tired.
Gather all your attention into one place, and your own life becomes the boat that carries you across.
Surtee surat ralaa-ee-ai ayt means "let your scattered attention melt into one steady focus." Think of a phone with twenty apps open at once. It gets slow and hot. Close them and settle on one, and it runs smoothly again.
Tan kar tulhaa means "make your body a raft." A tulhaa is a simple raft people tied together to cross a river. Your everyday life, with its hands, eyes and voice, is what you use to get across.
Deep inside there is a bhaahi, a fire of wanting. The verse does not say to put it out. It says rakh: keep it in check, like a stove turned down low. Then a calmer light, the deevaa or lamp of awareness, can burn athak, without getting tired, day and night.
What helps you gather your attention when it is scattered?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI