Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The day dawns and then it ends. The night passes away. Man's life is diminishing — but he does not understand.
Each day, the mouse of death is gnawing away at the rope of life.
Maya spreads out like sweet molasses. The self-willed manmukh is stuck in it like a fly — rotting away.
The final Mehl 4 shabad in Siree Raag opens with what is perhaps the single most vivid image of impermanence and urgency in all of Gurbani: mooraa choohi jeevan tand — the mouse of death is gnawing at the rope of life. Every day, every hour, the rope gets shorter. And the manmukh does not understand (na jaanai).
The fly in the molasses (makhee kit maas) — the fly lands in the sweet molasses thinking to enjoy it, is trapped, and rots. The sweetness is real; the trap is real; the rotting is real. Maya (the world's seductive surface) is not a fiction. It is genuinely sweet. The danger is in not seeing that the sweetness is also the trap.
What in your life is like sweet molasses — something that gives you pleasure but that you suspect might also be trapping you? What would looking at it honestly show you?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI