Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Why fuss so much over this body, dressing it up as if it were the whole of you?
It moves on the way a wisp of smoke thins into the sky — so lean, instead, on the One who is always here.
The body is a borrowed thing, here for a time and then let go.
But someone who imagines they'll last forever settles into comfort and forgets the very Source of everything.
The Rahau — ood jaa-igo Dhoom baadro; ik bhaajahu raam sanayhee — sets the body against the Beloved: pamper the passing, or run to what lasts. The graphic line naming three ways a body is disposed of (water, animals, fire) is dropped per the wellbeing rules and replaced with the gentle 'here for a time and then let go.' The teaching survives intact: don't build your whole identity on what is temporary.
If you're not just your body, what do you think the deeper 'you' is made of?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI