Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O Siblings of Destiny — God is my Friend and Companion.
Emotional attachment to children and spouse is poison. In the end, no one will go along with you as your helper.
Not that they don't love you. But they cannot go with you where you are going.
The rahao holds the contrast: God as meet (friend) and sakhaa (companion) — the warm, intimate terms of genuine friendship — set against the attachment to family (moh parivar) which is named bis (poison).
This is not saying family is bad. It is saying the attachment to family that displaces the attachment to the divine is what poisons. The family cannot accompany the soul at death. The divine companion goes everywhere. Knowing the difference — and orienting accordingly — is the teaching.
Guru Ram Das says this having been deeply embedded in family relationships himself: a devoted son-in-law, a husband, a father. He knew family love from the inside.
Can you love your family fully — completely, without holding back — and also hold the recognition that something accompanies you that they cannot? What does holding both feel like?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI