Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When we turn away from what is true, we can feel like we have nowhere to settle, drifting from place to place without ever feeling at home.
It is a restless, unmoored feeling — always searching, never landing.
But grace forgives, and the ones who turn back toward the teaching are welcomed home and joined to it again.
This short shalok of Guru Amar Das carries a simile the project handles with care. The original compares the restless soul to a chhutarh — a cast-off woman shamed with a 'bad reputation' — an image that stigmatizes women and is dropped entirely per the wellbeing and woman-honoring guidelines. What is kept is the genuine, non-gendered feeling underneath: thaur na thaa-o, the ache of having no place to rest, of drifting without a home. And, as in the previous shalok, the shalok turns to hope in its final line: gurmukh bakhsee-ah — those who turn back are forgiven and reunited. The restlessness is a description of a state, never a verdict on a person.
What is a place or a habit that helps you feel settled and at home in yourself?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI