Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who go around acting in egotism are struck down by the Messenger of Death with his club.
Those who serve the True Guru are lifted up — saved — in love with the Lord.
Ha-umai kari-an so maar parhaihai, jam ka-i dand laahai — those who walk about in egotism (haumai) are struck (maar parhaihai — beaten down, knocked flat) by the Messenger of Death (jam) with his club (dand). The image is stark and almost physical: the ego-driven person is being clubbed. Not in some distant afterlife judgment but as the result of how they are living now. Ego itself is the condition that makes the soul vulnerable to the Messenger's club — it is what gives the Messenger something to strike.
Satgur sev-ai so ubrai, prabh charnee chit laahai — those who serve the True Guru are ubrai (saved, rescued, lifted up), their consciousness fixed at the feet of the Lord. The contrast is precise: clubbed vs. lifted. Same world, same conditions — different orientation. The Guru-servant is lifted because the Guru's service removes the ego that the Messenger's club has something to strike. Where ego dissolves, the Messenger has no purchase.
The opening sets the stakes of the ashtapadee immediately: this is not abstract philosophy. There are two available outcomes and you are moving toward one of them right now. Which direction are you facing?
What is the version of you that acts most from ego — and what tends to pull you back toward the Guru's direction?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI