Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O Baba — Maya deceives. It creates an illusion and leads the mind astray.
The soul caught in doubt is the abandoned bride — she cannot find her way into the Beloved's embrace.
Baba Maya bharam bhulaa-ay — O Baba (a tender address, elder, the One), Maya deceives through bharam (doubt, illusion, wandering delusion). Bharam is both the cause and the effect: Maya creates the bharam, and the bharam causes the wandering. The soul is not wandering because it is bad; it is wandering because it is caught in an illusion it cannot see through on its own.
Bharam bhulee dohaagani naa pir ank samaa-ay — deceived by doubt, the abandoned bride is not received into the Lap of her Beloved. Ank (lap, embrace) — the most intimate image of belonging: the child in the parent's lap, the wife in the husband's embrace. The dohaagani caught in bharam cannot find that embrace — not because the Beloved has rejected her, but because the doubt keeps her from finding the way home.
The address "Baba" is notable — an intimate, elder term, suggesting a direct conversation with the divine: "O Baba, I see what is happening. Maya has deceived me. The doubt is what is keeping me." Naming the cause is the beginning of turning back. This is why the rahao is the heart of the composition: not a lament, but a recognition.
What is the doubt or illusion that most reliably pulls you away from what you know is true — and how do you recognize it when it shows up?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI