Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
A restless mind may drive us to the holiest places. It may drive us to the harshest, most painful trials.
Still the mind stays clouded, no matter how many thousands of hard efforts we pile up.
No outside effort, however hard, can wash the mind clean.
Man kaamnaa tirath jaa-ay basi-o means a mind full of wants goes to live at a holy place. The verse goes further still. It speaks of people who put their bodies through the harshest, most painful trials, hoping that will make them pure.
But man kee mail na utrai: the dirt of the mind does not come off. Mail means grime, the cloudiness inside. Not ih biDh, not this way, jay lakh jatan karaa-ay, even with thousands of efforts. Think of trying to clean a smudge on the inside of a window by scrubbing the outside. You can scrub all day. What cleans the mind is grace, and remembering the One.
Can you force yourself to feel peaceful, or does it come another way?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI