ਬਿਨੁ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਸੇਵ ਕਰਤ ਅਨ ਸੇਵਾ ਬਿਰਥਾ ਕਾਟੈ ਕਾਲ ॥
bin parabh sayv karat an sayvaa birthaa kaatai kaal.
Without serving God, one who serves another wastes his time uselessly.
ਜਬ ਜਮੁ ਆਇ ਸੰਘਾਰੈ ਪ੍ਰਾਨੀ ਤਬ ਤੁਮਰੋ ਕਉਨੁ ਹਵਾਲ ॥੧॥
jab jam aa-ay sanghaarai paraanee tab tumro ka-un havaal. ||1||
When the Messenger of Death comes to kill you, O mortal, what will your condition be then? ||1||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Serving anything other than the One, without the One in your heart, just lets the time slip by empty.
And when the day comes that this life ends, what will you have built to steady you then?
It is worth building, now, the kind of steadiness that lasts to the end.
bin prabh sayv karat an sayvaa: pouring yourself into what has no lasting center lets the hours pass empty. jab jam aa-ay: when the jam, the messenger of death, comes, how will you be? It is an honest question, asked kindly: when this life ends, what have you built that will hold? Gather now what lasts.
A Question to Sit With
What is something worth building now that would still matter years from now?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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