Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
When the body returns to the earth, when the breath stops — what happens to the soul?
All the clever tricks burn away. You depart crying.
Those who forgot the Name — what will happen when they arrive at the court of truth? Nanak asks this honestly, without judgment. It's a question worth sitting with.
The closing pauri of this long shabad returns to mortality — the same subject it opened with (false pleasures are temporary) and now resolved: all cleverness, all reputation, all false enjoyment — burns away at death.
The question "what will happen to those who forget the Name?" is left open, not as a threat, but as a genuine inquiry. Guru Nanak doesn't prescribe punishment — he simply points at the reality: a life lived without connection to the source leaves something essential unresolved.
If you could have a conversation with yourself from 20 years in the future, what do you think they would want to tell you about what actually mattered?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI