Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Worship with no faith behind it. Self-control with no honesty behind it. A holy thread worn with no pure life behind it. What good are they?
You can bathe and wash, and paint the holy mark on your forehead. But without a clean heart inside, there is no understanding.
What matters most is a clean heart, not only a clean outside.
The verse names things done without what should be inside them. Pat vin poojaa means worship without faith. Sat vin sanjam means self-control without truth. Then comes the janay-oo, the sacred thread worn by some Hindus, worn without a pure life.
You can bathe, wash, and put a tilak, a holy mark, on your forehead. But without such, a pure heart, there is no understanding.
This is Guru Nanak's well-known message about empty habits. It is aimed at hollow ritual in every faith. It is never aimed at people who practice with a sincere heart. Think of saying "sorry" with your arms crossed and a frown. The word is right, but the heart isn't in it. What counts is what is inside.
Can you think of a time doing the outside of something didn't matter, because the inside wasn't there?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI