Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In the corruption of the three qualities, there is blindness. In attachment to Maya, there is darkness.
The greedy serve other people's goals instead of the Lord — though they loudly announce their scriptural reading.
They are burnt by their own corruption. They are not at peace in this world or the next.
This one says that being stuck on the world's shiny things makes us blind, and showing off religion doesn't fix it.
Old Indian thought named three qualities that run through everything: busyness, dullness, and goodness. Guru Amar Das says all three, left to themselves, leave us in the dark. Maa-i-aa moh gubaar — love of Maya, the world's glitter, is thick darkness. Even goodness, the best of the three, is not the same as being free.
Parh vaydaa karai pookaar — they read the holy books and call it out loudly. Yet greed has them serving other things, not the One. This is aimed at a hollow show, not at any holy book or any faith. It's like someone who shouts about how much they practice piano but never really plays. Real practice doesn't need a loudspeaker.
Their own wrong wanting eats them up from inside. Naa urvaar na paar — they are at home on neither shore of the river, not here and not beyond.
Have you ever noticed yourself making a show of something good you were doing — announcing it instead of just doing it? What drives that?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI