Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You may gather gold and silver. But wealth is just a net — it entangles and traps.
You may beat the drum and proclaim authority over the whole world. But without the Name, death hovers over your head.
When the body falls, the play of life is over. What will happen to those who lived in evil then?
Kanchen roop suvaranee, maaiaaa jaal pasaaree — gathering gold and beautiful forms of wealth, Maya has spread its net. Jaal (net, trap) — wealth is not presented as inherently evil, but as a net that Maya uses. It looks like accumulation; it functions like entrapment. The more you gather, the more enmeshed you become.
Nak vaavai jag sabhoo, bin naavai sir maaree — beat the drum and proclaim authority over the whole world — without the Name, death (maaree — struck, killed) hovers over the head. The drum-beating is the public proclamation of power, the announcement that you have won. But it is all taking place under the shadow of death. Without the Name, the drum is being beaten with a corpse's hands.
Jab tan dheri dhoorrh theeai, tab khele na saathai — when the body becomes a heap of dust (dheri dhoorrh), the play of life is over; what shall be the condition of those who acted evilly? Khele (the play, the game, the drama of life): when the body falls, the play ends. Everything that was accumulated — the gold, the proclamations, the power — was khele, a play. Not real in the way the Name is real. And the ones who played it egoically are left with nothing when the play ends.
What would you regret spending your time on if you knew the play was ending soon — and why are you still spending time on it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI