Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You bathe and scrub and bow down to smooth stones.
But if love for the One has not colored your heart, you stay dirtier than dirty inside.
Set down your pride, and you receive the greatest wealth: the One. Remembering the One, a person is set free.
Outer washing cannot clean the heart. Love for the One does.
Naaveh dhoveh poojeh sailaa means "you bathe, you wash, and you worship stones." Without being colored by the One's love, the verse says, a person stays dirty inside.
Think of washing only the outside of a cup. It shines, but the inside is still sticky. Cleaning has to reach the inside. This is aimed at washing and worship done without love, in any faith, never at people who pray with a sincere heart.
Then comes the hopeful turn. Garab nivaar means "set down your pride." When you do, milai prabh saarath: you meet the true wealth of the One. The one who remembers the One is mukat, set free, and made whole.
What's the difference between looking clean on the outside and being kind and honest on the inside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI