Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Whoever takes shelter with the good is carried to safety.
Whoever spends their days tearing the good down keeps circling through the same suffering.
This one says you become what you do with other people's goodness: you shelter in it, or you attack it.
This short opening verse is a salok. It begins an ashtapadee, a set of eight verses, about the nindak: the one who slanders good people. To slander means to spread lies or mean talk to tear someone down. It sounds like a narrow subject, but it is about everyone. It asks what happens inside a person who makes other people's goodness a target.
The two lines mirror each other. Sant saran jo jan parai so jan udhranhaar — whoever takes shelter with the sant, the saints, the truly good, is carried to safety. Sant kee nindaa naankaa bahur bahur avtaar — whoever slanders them goes round and round, born again and again.
These are two ways of facing goodness: shelter or attack. They are two directions a soul can turn. Think of a sunflower that turns toward the light, and a plant that grows away from it into the shade.
Watch for one surprise from the start. Verse after verse in this set ends with a line of mercy.
If someone is being unkind to you or hurting you, that is never something you have to accept. Telling a grown-up you trust is always the right thing to do.
When you meet someone truly good, what happens in you - warmth, or a strange urge to find their flaw?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI