ਜੋ ਪ੍ਰਿਅ ਮਾਨੇ ਤਿਨ ਕੀ ਰੀਸਾ ॥
jo pari-a maanay tin kee reesaa.
He competes with those who have been accepted by the Beloved Lord.
ਕੂੜੇ ਮੂਰਖ ਕੀ ਹਾਠੀਸਾ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
koorhay moorakh kee haatheesaa. ||1|| rahaa-o.
This is how stubborn the false fool is! ||1||Pause||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Some part of us wants to compete with people who genuinely live from the heart, as if we could catch up by pretending.
But a mind that only puts on a show, without the inside to match, is really only fooling itself.
Pretending to be good only ever fools the one pretending.
The Rahao names the self-deception plainly. Handled for young readers as the trap of pretending rather than as an insult: koorhay moorakh kee haatheesaa — the stubbornness of the false is a knot to loosen, not a person to look down on. Ego is a sickness to heal, never a crime.
A Question to Sit With
Why do you think it feels safer sometimes to pretend than to be honest?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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