ਜਲ ਕੀ ਭੀਤਿ ਪਵਨ ਕਾ ਥੰਭਾ ਰਕਤ ਬੁੰਦ ਕਾ ਗਾਰਾ ॥
jal kee bheet pavan kaa thambhaa rakat bund kaa gaaraa.
The body is a wall of water, supported by the pillars of air; the egg and sperm are the mortar.
ਹਾਡ ਮਾਸ ਨਾੜੀ ਕੋ ਪਿੰਜਰੁ ਪੰਖੀ ਬਸੈ ਬਿਚਾਰਾ ॥੧॥
haad maas naarheeN ko pinjar pankhee basai bichaaraa. ||1||
The framework is made up of bones, flesh and veins; the poor soul-bird dwells within it. ||1||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The body is a delicate house, walls of water, pillars of air, held together with the mortar of our very beginnings.
Its frame is bone and flesh and thread-like veins, and inside this little house lives the tender soul, like a bird in its nest.
Your body is a wonderful, temporary home for something even more precious.
Ravidas contemplates the body with wonder rather than fear: a fragile, marvelous house sheltering the soul-bird. The point is not that the body is worthless, but that it is a temporary home, precious precisely because it is passing. The frailty invites tenderness, not dread.
A Question to Sit With
What does it feel like to think of your body as a home that shelters you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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