Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You could roam all nine continents and live forever. You could become a famous hermit, a master of discipline, putting your body through the hardest trials there are.
You could give away gold, horses, elephants, land. You could master every cleansing technique and every posture.
You could take on the harshest disciplines ever invented and punish your own body again and again -
and the grime of the ego still would not budge. Nothing equals the Name. Nanak says: facing the Guru, keep the Name, and be free.
Even the hardest feats cannot wash away pride.
The list grows more extreme. Roaming all nine continents. Living a very long life. Giving away gold, horses, elephants, and land. Strict body disciplines, even hurting one's own body on purpose. Then, in one line, the verdict. Ta-o bhee ha-umai mail na jaavai — even so, the dirt of the ego does not leave. Haumai is the ego, the me-first feeling.
The reason is simple. Every one of these feats can turn into a trophy for the ego. The harder the feat, the bigger the trophy. Think of someone who runs a race mostly to post about it. The winning only feeds the "look at me."
The verse names the very strict ways of some Jain monks among the others. The point is not about any faith. It is about the ego, which can hide inside any hard practice.
So trying to look holy and truly waking up can pull in opposite ways. One builds up the self. The other lets it melt.
Guru Arjan is not mocking effort. He is warning that effort aimed at making yourself pure mostly makes the self stronger.
Can trying very hard to be humble make someone proud? How?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI