Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O mind — serve the True Guru without any hesitation.
Serving the True Guru, the Lord comes to abide within the mind.
And no trace of filth or darkness shall ever attach itself to you.
Mann re satgur sevahu sah — O mind (mann re), serve (sevahu) the True Guru — simply. The rahao is a direct command: Serve the Guru. No qualification, no condition, no if or when. The word sah — with ease, with restraint, with simplicity. Serve with ease. The instruction is not to strain or over-effortfully seek, but to serve with the sah (ease) that itself reflects sahaj.
Satgur seviai man vasai har, mailaa khabh na laagai — serving the True Guru, the Lord comes to dwell (vasai) within the mind; no trace of filth (mailaa — dirt, impurity, darkness) shall attach itself (khabh na laagai — not even a speck sticks). Two things happen simultaneously in Guru-service: the Lord dwells within, and filth cannot find purchase. The presence of the Lord within is itself the protection. The Light in which darkness has no foothold.
Mailaa (filth, impurity) here is the accumulated residue of ego, attachment, craving — the things that stick to the mind in ordinary engagement with Maya. Guru-service is the process by which none of this sticks. Not because the world becomes clean but because the mind serving the Guru has a quality that filth cannot adhere to — like a surface that has been made non-stick. The Lord's dwelling within is that quality.
What is the mental or spiritual equivalent of 'filth' in your own life — the thoughts, habits, or patterns that seem to stick and diminish you? What practices help them not stick?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI