ਜੀਵਤ ਲਉ ਬਿਉਹਾਰੁ ਹੈ ਜਗ ਕਉ ਤੁਮ ਜਾਨਉ ॥
jeevat la-o bi-uhaar hai jag ka-o tum jaan-o.
Your worldly affairs exist only as long as you are alive; know this well.
ਨਾਨਕ ਹਰਿ ਗੁਨ ਗਾਇ ਲੈ ਸਭ ਸੁਫਨ ਸਮਾਨਉ ॥੨॥੨॥
naanak har gun gaa-ay lai sabh sufan samaana-o. ||2||2||
O Nanak, sing the Glorious Praises of the Lord; everything is like a dream. ||2||2||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Your worldly affairs last only as long as you are alive — know this well.
Nanak says: sing the One's praises; everything else is like a dream.
The world is vivid like a dream and gone when we wake — so hold it lightly, and let remembrance reach past it to what's real.
The close names the world "like a dream" — vivid while it lasts, and gone when we wake. This is not to call the world worthless but to name its dreamlike impermanence, so we hold it lightly. And against the dream, one solid thing: "sing the Glorious Praises of the Lord." In a passing dream, remembrance of the One is the one act that reaches past the dream to what is awake and real.
A Question to Sit With
If much of life is 'dreamlike,' what one thing would you want to be doing that reaches past the dream?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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