Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Sometimes attachment works like a numbing potion. It fogs the mind until we forget the treasure we already carry inside.
A person like that may be busy all day and still feel strangely asleep to what matters most.
When a heart is run entirely by grabbing and clinging, other people can no longer lean on it. It grows lonely.
But those who keep the Name alive inside them live in a deep and steady peace. What they are looking for already lives within.
Clinging can numb the heart, but keeping the Name inside brings deep peace.
In this verse Guru Amar Das draws the sharpest contrast so far. The verse's pictures are heavy: faces blackened with shame, children and wives who cannot come along, deep sighs of regret. The heart of the verse sits underneath them.
Moh thag-ulee means that clinging works like a drink a thief slips you, so he can rob you. It fogs the mind until we forget the guntaas, the treasure of goodness we already carry. Think of scrolling for hours and looking up to find the whole afternoon gone.
The person run only by grabbing becomes someone others cannot trust or lean on. That is a natural, quiet result, not a punishment. Then comes the line the verse is really aiming at: gurmukhaa no sukh aglaa. The gurmukh, the one who turns toward the Guru, lives in great peace, because the Name lives inside.
Can you think of a time being too focused on getting something made you miss what you already had?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI