Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You could give up your body at the holiest shrine - and the pride in your mind would stay right where it was.
You could purify yourself day and night, and the mind's grime would not leave.
You could discipline this body a hundred ways, and the mind would keep its poison.
You could pour rivers of water over this temporary body - but how do you wash a wall made of mud? O my mind, the praise of the Name is higher. Nanak says: the Name has lifted the worst of us.
You cannot wash a wall made of mud.
Here is the picture. Jal Dhovai baho dayh aneet — you may wash this passing body with lots of water. SuDh kahaa ho-ay kaachee bheet — but how can a wall of mud be made clean? Pour water on mud and you only get more mud. The body is always changing and wearing away. Scrubbing harder cannot make it pure, because the dirt was never on the body. It was in the mind.
The verse says this three ways. Giving up the body at a holy place. Washing day and night. Putting the body through hard discipline. Each time, the mind's dirt is still there. Every cure was given to the wrong patient.
Then the last lines turn from strict to kind. Naanak naam uDhray patit baho mooch — the Name has lifted so many who had fallen very low. The bar is very high, and the door is wide open. Both are true at once.
When something is wrong on the inside, what are the outside things people do instead of facing it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI