Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If greed and untruth are cluttering the inside, scrubbing only the outside won't do much.
Instead, keep the spotless Name always, walking with the teaching — that is what clears and frees the deepest part of you.
A pointed contrast between outer washing and inner cleansing. Antar mail — "filth within" (greed, falseness) — is not reached by baahar naavhu (bathing outside). This is Guru Nanak's classic critique of ritual purity: an outer wash means little if the inside stays cluttered — again aimed at empty formalism in any tradition, never at a people. The remedy is inner: nirmal naam japahu — keep the spotless Name — and then antar kee gat, the inner state, is freed. The literal's "why bother to wash your body" is kept as gentle rhetorical questioning, not scolding.
What is a way you can 'clean' the inside of yourself, not just look good on the outside?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI