Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Through desire, people are conceived and born. Through desire, they experience the sweet and the bitter.
Bound by desire, they are led through life — taking blow after blow.
Tied up and trapped by faults and failings, they are only freed through the Name and the Guru's teaching.
Aasaa andar jammi-aa — through desire (aasaa), people are born. This is the mechanics of samsara: the soul is drawn into embodiment by its unfulfilled desires. You are born because you wanted to come back — because desire pulled you into another round. Desire is not just a feature of life; it is the engine of its continuation.
Aasaa ras kas khaa-ay — through desire, they taste the sweet (ras) and sour (kas) flavors of life. Experience itself is desire-driven: you have the experiences your desires generate. The pleasant ones reinforce the craving; the painful ones produce more craving for relief. Either way, desire grows.
Aasaa bandh chalaa-ee-ai, muhay muhi chotaa khaa-ay — bound by desire, they are led on, taking blow after blow on the face. The image of the bound prisoner being led and struck: not free to choose direction, not free to stop, just driven forward by the desire-machine while suffering its consequences.
Avgan badhaa maaree-ai, chhootai gurmat naaei — bound and struck by faults, freed only through the Name and the Guru's Teaching. The release has a name and a method: the Name, received through the Guru's teaching. Not self-improvement through willpower, not accumulated virtue, not suppression of desire. The Guru's teaching and the Name — these are what interrupt the machine.
What desire has most driven the shape of your life — and has following it led you where you wanted to go?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI