Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Scrubbing the outside doesn't help much if the inside isn't honest.
The real cleaning happens when there's truth in your heart.
So wherever you go, speak kindly and keep good, true words in your mind.
Guru Nanak opens this Chhant with the raag's steady teaching, framed as a question that bookends the verse: "Why bother to wash the body, polluted by falsehood? One's cleansing bath is approved only if he practices Truth." Ritual washing without inner honesty is empty; "when there is Truth within the heart, then one becomes True." And the practical counsel: "wherever you go and sit, speak well, and write the Shabad in your consciousness" — carry truth and kind speech everywhere. For a child: real cleanliness is honesty inside, and it shows in speaking kindly wherever you go.
How can being honest and kind be a kind of 'washing' that's better than soap?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI