Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If you do not come into the Guru's shelter, the One is not found.
Lost in doubt, a person is born, dies, and comes back again, round and round.
Dying caught up in wrong ways, that person is held fast at death's door. The Naam is not in the heart, and the Word is not lived in the day.
The One is found in the Guru's shelter. Without it, we keep going round in circles.
Gur saran na aa-ee-ai barahm na paa-ee-ai means "without entering the Guru's shelter, the One is not found." Bharam bhulaa-ee-ai means "lost in doubt." Then a person keeps coming and going, round and round.
The verse speaks of being bound at jam dar, Death's door. It is a picture of being stuck in your own confusion.
Think of a maze with no map. You keep turning corners and ending up back where you started. The verse names the reason plainly: naa ridai naam na sabad achaar. There is no Naam, the Name of the One, in the heart, and the Guru's Word is not lived out in daily life.
It's one thing to know something's true and another to live it. Where is that gap widest for you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI