Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
There is only One. And the One is found by the True Guru's grace — a gift that is always here, waiting for an open heart.
Some colors are bright but cheap — like a flower dye that dazzles for a few days and then fades to nothing. So much of what I chase is like that.
Without the Name, a heart gets lost in doubt. What is false robs it like a thief.
But when a heart is soaked in what is truly real, that color does not wash out. It holds. The coming and going is over.
Some colors fade fast, but the color of the True One lasts.
Kachaa rang kasumbh kaa: the color of kasumbh, the safflower, is weak. It is bright and pretty, but it lasts din chaar, just four days. Gurbani often uses this flower dye as a picture of shiny things that do not last.
Think of a cheap T-shirt that looks amazing in the store and goes pale after two washes.
Without the Name, the verse says, a heart is lost in doubt, and falseness robs it like a thief. Sachay saytee ratiaa: but a heart dyed in the True One keeps its color. It does not have to go around the cycle of birth again. That color never washes out.
What have you wanted badly that lost its shine soon after you got it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI