Pride Needs No Punisher; It Eats Its Owner

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This one says humble people live in peace, and pride eats up the person who carries it.

Sukhee basai maskeenee-aa — the humble live in peace. Maskeen means humble and gentle. They have set the me-first feeling down. The very proud are different: naanak garab galay, they are worn away by their own garab, their pride.

Look at who does the eating. No one comes from outside to punish the proud. The pride itself eats them up, the way a fire burns up its own wood.

This short verse, the salok, opens the twelfth song of Sukhmani. That song follows pride through every form. Pride in power, in looks, in being good, in money, in strength, even in being spiritual. Then, in its second half, it rises to the One, in whom there was never any ego at all.