Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
All have gathered together — but we shall return home by different routes.
The Gurmukhs reap their profits and leave.
While the self-willed manmukhs lose their investment and depart.
Sab-u jag-u mel-ii-aa, nikh-as-naa sah-ee — all the world (sab-u jag-u) has gathered (mel-ii-aa); the departing (nikh-as-naa) is the truth (sah-ee — genuine, real, inevitable). All came to this arena, this life. All will depart. The departure is certain; what differs is how.
Laah-aa lai-i Gurmukh-u gai-aa — the Gurmukh (gurmukh-u) has taken (lai-i) the profit (laah-aa — gain, profit in trade) and gone. The merchant metaphor from the ashtapadees throughout Siree Raag: life is the marketplace. Those who trade in the Name come away with profit. The Gurmukh departs with what they came for — the Name, the divine union, the liberation.
Mannmukh-u thag-iiaa khai-i gaiaa — the manmukh has lost his investment (thag-iiaa — cheated, robbed, lost) and gone (khai-i gaiaa — eaten up the investment, depleted everything). Not just no profit — the investment itself is lost. The manmukh who spent the life on what does not last has departed with less than they arrived with. This is not a moral condemnation but an honest accounting: the soul that spent its human birth on what has no ultimate value has, at departure, lost even the capital of the human birth.
What are you investing the currency of your life in — your time, attention, energy? And will that investment have been worth it when you look back?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI