Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You call yourself a master of the body's urges, but you have not mastered them.
You beg from the world, pulled by its three kinds of wanting.
You have no kindness, so the inner light cannot shine in you. You are sinking, sinking under all your own tangles.
Kindness is the test of a spiritual person. Without it, the inner light cannot shine.
The yogi here claims to be a jatee, someone who has fully mastered the body's urges. But he has not. He still reaches greedily for the world's rewards, pulled by its three kinds of pull.
Then comes the heart of it. Nirda-i-aa nahee jot ujaalaa means "without compassion, the Light does not shine." Nirda-i-aa means without mercy or kindness. Jot is the divine Light inside everyone.
Think of a lamp with the plug pulled out. It can look fancy, but it gives no light. Kindness is what plugs us in. Guru Nanak makes kindness, not hard self-denial, the true measure of a person. The "drowning" here is in janjaalaa, the tangles we make for ourselves. It is not a punishment from outside.
Someone can look very disciplined and still be unkind. Why does Nanak say kindness matters most?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI