Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
If I forget my Beloved, even for a moment, my mind grows very sick.
How can I be honored in the Lord's Court, if the Lord does not live in my mind?
Meeting the Guru, I find peace. The fire inside goes out as I sing His praises.
This line says: forgetting the One we love, even for a moment, makes the mind feel sick.
Ik til pi-aaraa veesrai rog vadaa man maahi: if the Beloved slips from the mind for a til, a tiny sesame-seed moment, a big sickness comes into the mind. It is not a sickness of the body. It is the heavy, unsettled feeling of being cut off from what holds you up.
Scientists who study babies see something like this. When a baby loses sight of its parent, even for a moment, its whole body shows it is upset. Guru Nanak is saying the soul is like that with its Source. Even a short time apart is felt.
Ki-o dargeh pat paa-ee-ai: how can we be honored in the Lord's Court if He does not live in our mind? The dargeh is His Court, the place where each life is seen truly.
Then the cure. Gur mili-ai sukh paa-ee-ai: meeting the Guru, we find peace. Agan marai gun maahi: the fire inside goes out in singing His gun, His good qualities.
Have you ever felt disconnected from something you love — a person, a practice, your own values — and felt it physically? Where did you feel it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI