Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
While you are young and healthy and full of life — meditate on the Lord's Name. Now. Not later.
The Lord will walk with you along the road. And at the end of the journey, He will save you.
I am amazed by those people in whose minds the Lord actually dwells. They are something rare.
Those who never remembered the Name of the Lord will leave this world carrying regret. That is the only thing they will have to take.
Those with good destiny written on their foreheads — Nanak says — they meditate on the Naam.
Urgency of youth
Jāvan jovani dhan bhal meditate on the Naam — "as long as there is youth and health, meditate on the Name." The tradition's consistent emphasis: the time to build the practice is when you have energy, health, and the flexibility to form new habits. Not when you are sick, not when you are dying, not at the last moment — though grace can arrive then too. But the merchant who waits until the last day to load cargo has wasted the whole journey's trading opportunity.
This is not a judgment on those who find the practice later in life. It is a genuine instruction for the young: the time is now, while the capacity is full.
"The Lord walks with you on the road"
Nālai nāl chalai — "He goes along beside you." Not just waiting at the destination. Walking with you the whole way. This is the promise that transforms the urgency: the Lord is not only the final salvation but the companion through everything between here and there.
Regret as the manmukh's final cargo
Chorḏ chalay dukh ro'e — those who didn't remember "depart crying out in despair." The word dukh is pain, sorrow. The only cargo they load in the end is regret. This is Guru Ram Das's quiet warning embedded in a pauri otherwise about grace and destiny.
*If you knew for certain that what you practice consistently now will be what you have access to at the very end of your life — what would you want to be practicing?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI