Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
As the words of the merciful One come to me, that is how I speak them, Lalo — I will not soften the truth.
An army of cruelty has come down from Kabul and seized this land by force. Decency and fairness have hidden away, and falsehood swaggers about as if it were in charge.
The judges and the scholars, the ones who were meant to keep things right, have lost their place, and wrongdoing runs the day. Women of every faith and every rank suffer alike, calling out to God in their grief.
Where there should have been wedding-songs and celebration, there was only horror; Nanak will not look away from it.
Guru Nanak saw an army attack his land, and he told the truth about it.
This shabad is part of the Babar Vani, the verses about Babar. Around 1521, Babar's army came down from Kabul, in what is now Afghanistan. Babar later founded the Mughal Empire in India. Nanak saw the fighting and the suffering with his own eyes. He tells it to his friend Lalo, a carpenter, a working man many people looked down on. Each line ends vay laalo — O Lalo. So the story is told to an ordinary person, not to kings.
Nanak begins, jaisee mai aavai khasam kee banee — as the Master's Word comes to me, so I speak it. He will not make it sound nicer than it was.
He paints a wedding turned upside down. Paap kee janj — a wedding party of wrongdoing — arrives and demands the land as its gift. Modesty and fairness hide. Lies strut around like the boss. Kaajee-aa baamnaa kee gal thakee — the Qazis, the Muslim judges, and the Brahmins, the Hindu priests, have lost their say. Women of both faiths, of high rank and low, suffer alike. Where saffron should be sprinkled at a wedding, there is blood.
Nanak does not blame any faith. The people he grieves for are Muslim and Hindu together. His anger is aimed at cruelty itself. Think of a student who sees someone being bullied and speaks up, even when it's hard. Nanak does that for a whole land. When cruelty takes over, a good person's first job is to not stay silent. Name what is happening, and name it for everyone, across every faith and class.
If someone is being unkind to you or hurting you, that is never something you have to accept. Telling a grown-up you trust is always the right thing to do.
Why does it matter that Nanak named the suffering of people of every faith and rank, not just his own?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI