Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who live entirely in ego will die — and everything they accumulated will not go with them.
Because of their love of duality, they suffer in pain. The Messenger of Death watches all of them.
Gurmukhs are saved through the True Name.
Haumai — ego — and its consequence
Haumaim karan sab mare, har sāth na javā'i — "those who act in ego shall all die. Their worldly possessions shall not go along with them." The ego's fundamental problem is its relationship to death. The ego accumulates. It builds. It stores. And then death comes and none of it goes with the soul. The cargo the ego loaded is left on the shore.
Dūjai pyār dukh pā'e, miri'ā sabh jo disā'i — "Because of their love of duality, they suffer in pain. The Messenger of Death is watching all." Duality here means the love of something other than the Lord as one's primary orientation. This love of duality is not just spiritually unfortunate — it is painful. The pain comes from the structural incompatibility between the soul's nature and the object of its love: the soul needs the Lord; Maya cannot fulfill that need.
The watching Messenger
Miri'ā sabh jo disā'i — "the Messenger of Death is watching all." This is not a threat but a fact. The Messenger watches everyone. The teaching in this context is not "be afraid" but "make choices accordingly." The Gurmukh is saved through the True Name — not exempted from death but freed from death's sting, because what the soul genuinely is has already merged with what does not die.
*What do you think you are actually carrying through your life that will still be with you at the end? How would you know?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI