Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The manmukh — the self-centered one — is like a filthy, rude, and evil wife. She leaves her own home and her Husband Lord and gives her love to someone else.
Her desires are never satisfied. She burns and cries out in pain.
Without the Name, she is abandoned by the Husband Lord.
The negative pole of the soul-bride metaphor
This Shalok and the next (Pauri62) form a deliberate pair: the manmukh soul-bride who forsakes the Husband, and the Gurmukh soul-bride who enjoys Him. The juxtaposition is the Vaar's teaching through contrast.
Manmukh bhain mailī, kuhkī'ī burī, Har pati visāri'ā hor nāl lagī — "The self-willed manmukh, the foolish bride, is a filthy, rude and evil wife. Forsaking her Husband Lord and leaving her own home, she gives her love to another." The manmukh's error is not external — it is that she leaves "her own home." The home — the interior dwelling, the self's genuine abode — is where the Husband Lord is. She leaves it to go somewhere else, to someone else.
Desires never satisfied
Man tarisnā bhukh na bhujai, dukh rol kūrlāi — "Her desires are never satisfied, and she burns and cries out in pain." The structural consequence of turning from the Lord: the desires never reach satisfaction. Whatever she sought "elsewhere" — with whoever she gave her love to — it does not satisfy. The soul that needs the Lord finds no other substitute. The burning and crying are the natural result of seeking satisfaction where it cannot be found.
*Is there something you keep returning to seeking satisfaction in that never quite satisfies? What do you think you're actually looking for?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI