Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Those who don't serve the True Guru and don't contemplate the Shabad — wisdom doesn't enter their hearts. They walk around like dead bodies.
They cycle through millions of rebirths and are ruined by the relentless coming and going.
He alone serves the True Guru whom the Lord Himself inspires to serve.
The Treasure of the Naam is within the True Guru — and by His Grace, it is obtained.
Those who are truly attuned to the Guru's Shabad — their love is forever True. Those united with Him will not be separated again. They merge imperceptibly into God.
"Like dead bodies in the world"
Satgur sevā, Shabad vichār nāhī, gat nāhī man jan māṛhi — "those who do not serve the True Guru, and who do not contemplate the Word of the Shabad, spiritual wisdom does not enter into their hearts; they are like dead bodies in the world." The person without inner spiritual life — without the Shabad, without service to the Guru — is alive in body but dead in the most essential sense. They function, they eat and sleep and breathe, but the deepest dimension of existence is absent.
The 8.4 million reincarnations represents the full count of life forms in classical Indian cosmology — the soul cycling through all of them before reaching human form, and then cycling again if the human life is wasted.
"Merge imperceptibly into God"
Jin Har meli'ā, soi mili'ā, nadar kari milā'i — "those who are united with Him shall not be separated again. They merge imperceptibly into God." The merging is sahaj (imperceptible, natural, effortless). No seam. No dramatic moment of union. Just a gradual dissolving of the distinction until the distinction is gone. The soul that has been in the Naam so long that it has become the Naam — it merges.
*What is the difference between being physically present and actually alive in a situation — alive to what is happening, genuinely engaged? When do you feel most alive?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI