Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
She may wear beautiful clothes — but if the bride's mind is false, and she gives orders to her Husband Lord instead of following His Will, she will not find what she's looking for.
But she who walks in harmony with the Guru's Will is spared all pain and suffering.
What was written by the Creator cannot be erased. She must dedicate her mind and body to the Lord.
Without His Name, no one has found Him. Think about this and let it settle.
Nanak says: she is beautiful and graceful — the Creator ravishes and enjoys her.
The soul-bride who gives orders
Kalian kapre, manmukhi bhain, Har pati sion nachhoh — "she may wear good clothes, but the bride is ugly and rude; she does not walk in harmony with the Will of her Husband Lord. Instead, she foolishly gives Him orders." The soul-bride who tries to direct the divine — who comes to the Lord with demands rather than surrender — is described as rude and ugly, despite her beautiful external presentation.
The "giving orders" is the ego's fundamental posture toward the divine: I will tell you what I need, I will specify what should happen, I will determine the conditions of our relationship. This posture inverts the actual relationship between the soul and the Lord. The result: she cannot find what she is looking for, because what she needs is not the Lord under her conditions but the Lord on His terms.
"The Creator ravishes and enjoys her"
Nānak, sun sundar, Prabhu bhog karī'ai — "O Nanak, she is beautiful and graceful; the Creator Lord ravishes and enjoys her." The bride who walks in harmony with the Guru's Will becomes beautiful — genuinely beautiful, the inner beauty that follows genuine surrender. And the Lord enjoys her: the erotic language of divine union, expressing the completeness of the connection between the surrendered soul and the divine.
*Think about a relationship — with a person, a place, a practice — where you got in your own way by trying to control it. What happened when you let go of that control?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI