Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Forgetting the Primal Lord, people are born and die over and over again.
They mistake the stinking pit for musk — they think the poison smells sweet.
Guru Arjan's brief and devastating image
Guru Arjan (Mehl 5) contributes one Shalok to the Vaar — two lines that compress an entire teaching into a single image.
Bisri mool, Nānak, jann pāi mare — "Forgetting the Primal Lord, O Nanak, people are born and die over and over again." The mool (root, source, primal origin) is the divine — the source from which the soul comes and to which it returns. Forgetting this source is the fundamental error that generates the cycle of birth and death.
The musk-pit paradox
Kasturi bhramār, bikh kup pari'ā — "Mistaking it for musk, they have fallen into the stinking pit of filth." Kasturi is musk — one of the most precious and fragrant substances known to Indian culture. The bees (bhramār) mistake the stinking pit of filth for musk and fall into it.
The image is of the soul attracted to something that appears to be the most precious thing — fragrant, desirable, the thing of all things worth seeking — and discovering it is a pit of filth. This is Maya at its most precise: not obviously bad, not obviously harmful, but appearing to be exactly what the soul is looking for. The confusion is architectural, not moral.
Guru Arjan places this Shalok in the Vaar to remind the reader: even genuine seekers can mistake the poison for nectar. The Guru's guidance is what prevents the fall into the pit.
*Is there something in your life that looked like exactly what you wanted and turned out to be the opposite? What helped you see it clearly?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI