Sikhism·Siree Raag·Shabad 51
Verse 3 of 4

Engrossed in Ego, the World Perishes

ਹਉਮੈ ਵਿਚਿ ਜਗੁ ਬਿਨਸਦਾ ਮਰਿ ਜੰਮੈ ਆਵੈ ਜਾਇ ॥
ha-umai vich jag binasdaa mar jammai aavai jaa-ay.
Engrossed in egotism, the world perishes. It dies and is re-born; it continues coming and going in reincarnation.
ਮਨਮੁਖ ਸਬਦੁ ਨ ਜਾਣਨੀ ਜਾਸਨਿ ਪਤਿ ਗਵਾਇ ॥
manmukh sabad na jaannee jaasan pat gavaa-ay.
The self-willed manmukhs do not recognize the Shabad; they forfeit their honor, and depart in disgrace.
ਗੁਰ ਸੇਵਾ ਨਾਉ ਪਾਈਐ ਸਚੇ ਰਹੈ ਸਮਾਇ ॥੩॥
gur sayvaa naa-o paa-ee-ai sachay rahai samaa-ay. ||3||
Serving the Guru, the Name is obtained, and one remains absorbed in the True Lord. ||3||

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

In plain words

Engrossed in ego, the world perishes. It does not remember the Name of the Lord.

Without the True Teacher, it does not understand. And it loses this human birth in vain.

The forgetting is the tragedy. Not the circumstances — the forgetting.

The world's tragedy is not its suffering — it is the forgetting that causes it. Remembering is the cure.
The deeper layer

Haumai garab (engrossed in ego-pride) produces binas (perishing). Not dramatic destruction — the slow waste of the human birth in forgetfulness.

"The world does not remember the Name" — na chete Naam — the diagnostic is simple: the world's problem is forgetting. The solution is equally simple: remember. The difficulty is not in the complexity of the solution but in the consistency of the practice of remembering.

A Question to Sit With

What do you most need to remember throughout your day — not a fact, but a truth about what matters — that you keep forgetting? What would help you remember it?

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI

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