Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The Reaper does not look upon any as unripe, half-ripe, or fully ripe. All are cut.
Picking up and wielding their sickles, the harvesters arrive.
When the landlord gives the order, they cut and measure the crop — regardless of its state.
This one uses a harvest to say that the end of life comes when it comes, ready or not.
Haree naahee nah daduree pakee — green, half-ripe, or fully ripe, the reaper doesn't look. Lai lai daat pahuti-aa — the harvesters arrive with their sickles. Jaa ho-aa hukam kirsaan daa — when the farmer gives the order, they cut and measure the crop. The order isn't only for the ripe or the old. It comes when it comes.
Guru Amar Das used farming pictures too. Here it's the last harvest. The farmer who had a whole season and didn't plant is cut the same as the one who did. The season was the gift. Its end is sure.
This isn't meant to be gloomy. Think of a school year. You know it ends in June, so you don't leave all your learning for the last week. The point is: do what matters now, not "later."
Do you secretly operate with the assumption that you have more time than you might? What would change if you genuinely didn't assume that?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI