Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Some are self-willed manmukhs — they do not love the Word of the Shabad. Bound in chains, they wander lost in reincarnation.
Through 8.4 million lifetimes they wander over and over again.
They waste away their lives in vain.
This one is about people who haven't yet found a love for the Guru's Word, and the long, lost wandering that follows.
Iknaa manmukh sabad na bhaavai: "Some are manmukhs; the Word doesn't please them." A manmukh is someone who follows only their own wants. They haven't pushed the Shabad away on purpose. They just haven't found it yet. The cure is there, and they don't know it.
BanDhan banDh bhavaa-i-aa: "tied up, they are made to wander." Wants that are never met work like ropes.
Lakh cha-oraaseeh: "eighty-four lakh," which is 8.4 million. This is an old, traditional number for all the kinds of living things. It isn't a science count. It is a way of saying "a very, very long way round."
Birthaa janam gavaa-i-aa: "they waste their life for nothing." Birthaa means in vain. A human life is seen as the most precious one, the life where a person can meet the One.
Imagine being given a ticket to the best concert in the world, then spending the whole show in the parking lot looking for something else. That is the sadness the verse points at: chasing what can't fill us, and missing the one thing that can.
What are the things in your life that you give the most time and attention to — and which of those will matter in twenty years? Which will not?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI