Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You play like a child and crave sweet things. Moment by moment, you get more tangled in attachment.
Tasting good and bad, you eat nectar and then poison. Then the five passions show up and torment you.
You leave behind meditation, discipline, self-control and the wisdom of good deeds. You do not remember the Lord's Name.
Strong desire overflows in you, and your thinking grows dark. You are caught in the grip of Shakti, the power of Maya.
This one says that as we grow, sweet things slowly pull our attention away.
Baal binod chind ras laagaa: the child plays and wants sweets. Khin khin mohi bi-aapai: moment by moment, attachment grows. We hold on tighter to toys, friends, routines and feeling good.
Then come the panch, the "five." Gurbani names five pulls inside us: kaam (lust), karoDh (anger), lobh (greed), moh (clinging) and ahankaar (pride). They are not enemies from outside. They are habits that grow as the "me" feeling grows. At first they are small. Then they get bigger and start pushing us around.
Ras mis mayDh amrit bikh chaakhee: we taste sweet and bitter, nectar and poison, and cannot always tell them apart. Bit by bit, the child is woven into Maya, the pull of the world's passing things, without even noticing. Meanwhile the good habits get left behind: meditation, discipline, self-control and the wisdom of good deeds. These are the very things that could have kept us steady.
This is not a complaint about children. It is what happens to almost everyone, one sweet thing at a time. Think of a phone that starts with one app and slowly fills with notifications. Nobody chose the noise. It just crept in.
Which of the five passions — desire, anger, greed, attachment, pride — do you feel most strongly right now in your own life?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI