Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
O mortal — you came here to earn a profit.
What useless activities are you attached to? Your life-night is coming to its end.
The opportunity was given for a specific purpose. Most of the time is already spent.
The rahao uses the merchant metaphor again: you came here (aa-iaa hath) to earn profit. But kiaa lahih alaaeni-aa — what are you getting from these useless activities? And bihaanee raint — your life-night is coming to its end.
Guru Arjan uses the raat (night) as life-frame: the night is almost over. What was done in the night? What was earned? The morning (prabhat) is coming — and in the morning it will be visible what the night produced.
If you evaluated how you've been spending your time this past year against what you actually came here to do, what would the profit-and-loss statement look like?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI