Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In the second watch of the night, the mind gets pulled toward everything except the Source. Your parents hold you close, call you theirs, believe you exist to carry them forward — that love is real, but underneath it is the attachment of Maya.
The mistake of the sleeping soul is this: it clings to the gift without knowing the Giver. The gift is this life, this family, this beauty — but none of it exists without the One who pours it out.
The rare Gurmukh sees clearly: reflect on the Lord. Love the Lord within your mind.
Says Nanak: the one who does this — death never swallows them.
Clinging to the gift, not knowing the Giver
Jo devai tisai na jāṇai mūṛhā, dite no laptā'e — "the fool does not know the One who gives; instead, he clings to the gift." This is one of the clearest formulations in all of Siree Raag of the fundamental spiritual error. Every good thing in life is a gift from the divine. The error is not in receiving the gift — it is in becoming so consumed by the gift that you forget there is a Giver.
This applies to everything: the beauty of the world, the love of family, health, talent, success. The soul that clings to these things without recognizing their source is the soul that will be devastated when they are taken. The soul that recognizes the Giver behind every gift holds the gifts more lightly — and receives them more completely.
"Mine, mine" — the maternal claiming
Māt pitā su-ut nehu ghanerā, māiā moh sabā'ī — "the love of mother, father and son is so great, but all are caught in the emotional attachment of Maya." Guru Ram Das does not condemn the love of parents for children. He describes it accurately: that love is enormous, and it is also entangled. The claiming — "he is mine, he will support me, he will carry my name forward" — is the Maya that wraps itself around genuine love and turns it into something that binds.
The teaching is not to stop loving your parents or children. It is to recognize that even the deepest family love is pointing at something beyond itself: the love of the divine, which is where all love originates and to which all love returns.
"Death never devours you"
Tis kāl na kabahūn khā'e — "death never devours you." This is the payoff of the entire pauri: the Gurmukh who is lovingly attached to the Lord in mind is not subject to death in the way the sleeping soul is. This is not a claim about the body — the body dies. It is a claim about the soul: the one who has genuinely merged in the Lord has already dissolved the ego that death threatens. What cannot be threatened is what cannot be swallowed.
*Can you think of something in your life you love so much that losing it would feel unbearable? What would it mean to hold that with open hands?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI