Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You can read every holy book and still feel restless, until the true teaching settles the heart.
You can pile up deeds until you are worn out and still feel tangled again and again.
You can search in every direction — but the resting place isn't a place; it is being shown the way.
By good fortune I found the teacher, and now the Name runs sweet through my days.
You can search everywhere, but the heart settles only when the true Guru shows the way.
Guru Arjan lists the ways people try. They study the Simritees and Shaastras, the old holy books of learning. They do anik karam, many good deeds and rituals, until they are worn out. They search chaaray kundaa, all four directions.
Still bharam, doubt and confusion, stays. Think of running around the whole house looking for your phone, getting tired and grumpy. Then someone simply points and says, "It's right there."
This is not aimed at any one faith. It is aimed at effort that is mistaken for arriving. Reading, doing and searching are not the goal. The goal is a heart that is settled by being shown the way.
Vadbhaagee gur paa-i-aa — by great good fortune, I found the Guru. Finding is a gift received, not a prize won.
When have you kept trying harder at something, when what you really needed was to slow down?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI