Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O mind, let go of your proud ego.
Serve the Lord, the Guru, the Sacred Pool. Then you will be honored in the Court of the Lord.
This is the pause line, the Rahao, the center of the song. It says: drop your pride, and you will be honored where it really counts.
Man ray ha-umai chhod gumaan — O mind, let go of ha-umai, the ego, and its gumaan, its puffed-up pride.
Har gur sarvar sayv too — serve the Lord, the Guru, who is like a sarvar, a sacred pool. In Sikh life, a pool of holy water is a place of washing, cooling and starting fresh. Here the pool is the Guru and the company of the Name.
Think of wanting to jump into a cool pool on a hot day while still wearing a heavy winter coat. The water is right there. The coat is what keeps you out. Pride is like that coat. You take it off at the edge, and then you can go in.
Paavahi dargeh maan — you will be honored in the Lord's court. That honor works the opposite way from the world's honor. It goes to the humble, not the proud.
What would you have to stop pretending — about yourself, to yourself — to feel genuinely free?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI