Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You can wear all the right labels and do all the right ceremonies and still have a heart stuffed full of wanting-more.
The rituals themselves are not the problem. The trouble is when the inside does not match the outside — when someone performs holiness but keeps greed and unkindness tucked away. Speaking badly of the Sangat only keeps a heart lost in not-knowing.
You can look very holy on the outside and still be full of greed on the inside.
Guru Arjan names a problem that shows up in every faith, not just one. It is going through sacred actions while the heart stays untouched.
He uses examples his own listeners knew. A baisnou is a devotee of Vishnu, a name for God in the Hindu tradition. The "six rituals" were the daily duties of a priest. But the point is not about any one tradition. It is about the gap between acting holy and living it.
Think of a shiny apple with a worm inside. The outside looks perfect. The inside tells the real story.
The verse also says that people who speak badly of the sant sabhaa, the Sangat — people gathered together to remember the One — stay lost, sinking in their own not-knowing. If someone is being unkind to you or hurting you, that is never something you have to accept. Telling a grown-up you trust is always the right thing to do.
Have you ever done the right thing on the outside while feeling something different inside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI