Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Some words, when spoken, bring honor — both to you and to the person you're speaking to. Other words land like a wound.
Harsh words bring grief. Not just to the person you say them to — to you too.
Those who are genuinely pleasing to the oneness — they are good. Everything else is just noise.
A meditation on the weight of language. In Gurmat, bani (sacred word) is not just poetry — it is vibration, it is living presence. Words carry energy.
The instruction to listen, "O foolish and ignorant mind," is directed inward — Guru Nanak addressing his own wandering, reactive mind, not lecturing others.
The final criterion — "those who are pleasing to Him are good" — cuts through all social judgment. What matters is not whether others approve of your words, but whether they come from truth.
Can you think of a time when you said something harsh and felt bad about it afterward? What made you say it, and what would you say differently now?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI