Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You can sing all the right songs and still not understand what they mean. You can dress the part of a holy person, wear the robes, do all the outward things, and still be empty inside. And if someone calls himself a great teacher but spends his days asking others to hand him things, that is not someone to look up to.
Here is the mark of a good life: work honestly for what you eat, and give some of it away to others. Nanak says a person who does that knows the path.
Honest work and sharing what you have make up the path.
Empty show can turn up in any tradition: someone who sings without wisdom, a hungry Mullah who turns his home into a mosque for a living, an idle man who pierces his ears to look like a Yogi, a self-made guru who goes around asking for things. Ghaal khaa-ay kichh hathahu day-ay — whoever works for what they eat and gives some from their own hand knows the path. Sikhs remember it as kirat karo, vand chhako: earn honestly, and share.
When you have something good, what makes it easy or hard to share it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI