Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
This mind of ours runs off in every direction, tugged around by loving two things at once, and it loses its way.
Facing only itself, forgetting the Name, it lets a whole life slip past unused.
But when it meets the true teaching, the Name is found — and the grasping and the clinging quietly ease off.
The middle pauri diagnoses the scattered mind: dah dis dhaavdaa — "running in ten directions" — pulled by doojai bhaa-ay, the love of duality. The literal's manmukh mugadh ("foolish self-willed one") is softened to gentle self-observation — a mind that "faces only itself" and lets time slip, not a wicked person. And the turn is always hope: satgur bhaytay taa naa-o paa-ay — meet the teaching and the Name is found, haumai moh chukaa-i-aa, ego and clinging easing. The message is that the scattered mind isn't broken; it just hasn't met what steadies it yet.
What pulls your attention in too many directions — and what helps you focus again?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI