Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Everyone begs for happiness. No one asks for suffering.
But in the wake of happiness, there comes great suffering. The self-willed manmukhs do not understand this.
Those who see pain and pleasure as one and the same find peace. They are pierced through by the Shabad.
The pleasure-suffering pair: happiness brings suffering in its wake (dukh dard follows sukh). The manmukh who pursues happiness without understanding this is caught in the cycle. The resolution: dono eko jaanai — seeing both as one and the same. Not indifference to pain or pleasure, but the equanimity that is not driven differently by each.
'Pierced through by the Shabad' — the Shabad produces this equanimity. Not philosophical acceptance but the genuine transformation of the one who carries the Shabad within. The Shabad in the heart reorganizes what pain and pleasure can do to the person.
What would it look like to feel genuine equanimity about both pleasure and pain — not to care less, but to be moved by them without being driven by them?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI