Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Deceived, the bride wanders to foreign lands — she leaves her own home behind.
She climbs mountains, crosses plateaus, while her mind trembles with doubt.
Separated from the very source of her being, how can she find her way back? Plundered by pride, she cries out.
Bhoolee firai disantree — deceived, she wanders in foreign lands (disantree — across distant regions, far from home). The soul that has lost the divine has also lost its home; it wanders in what is foreign and strange. The foreignness is not geographical — it is the foreignness of ego-directed life, which is always somehow not quite where you belong.
Bhoolee doongar thal charhai — she climbs the plateaus and mountains, deceived. This image responds directly to the broader Siree Raag challenge: the soul that searches for God in forests, mountains, and pilgrimages is going in the wrong direction. The mountain is not where the divine lives. The home is. Every step up the mountain is a step away from the Husband who lives within the home.
Dharahu vichhunnee ki-o milai, garab muthee billaa-ay — separated from the Primal Being (dharahu — from the beginning, from the source), how can she meet? Plundered by pride (garab), she cries and bewails.
Garab (pride, arrogance) is identified as the plunderer — not Maya alone, but the pride within the bride that made her leave home, made her climb the mountains instead of looking within. Pride was the original error — the conviction that she could find what she needed through her own effort and direction — and now she suffers its consequence.
When have you gone far afield looking for something that was already close — and what made it hard to see what was right there?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI