Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When a life ends, the body returns to the world in many different ways — people all across the earth have their own gentle customs for saying goodbye.
Some are honored with fire, some are laid in the earth, some return quietly to nature, some are given to the rivers.
Nanak says: where the person goes, and what they become, is a mystery none of us can fully see. The body was never the point.
Every people has its own way of saying goodbye — fire, earth, water, the open land. They stand side by side here, none ranked above another, because naanak ayv na jaap-ee — no one knows where the soul goes. The body is not the person, and how it is laid to rest is not what matters. What matters is the life lived while the breath is here.
Different people say goodbye to those who die in different ways. Why do you think Guru Nanak said none of those ways is more right than another?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI