A Life Without Remembrance Is a Vault Never Opened
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
A life spent refusing the truth just does not work - how can anything be clean without Truth in it?
Without the Name, the body is a lamp that was never lit, and even the words that come out of it go stale.
Days and nights without remembering pass like a crop withering with no rain. Works without meaning pile up like a miser's money - a fortune nobody ever gets to use.
But blessed, blessed are the hearts the Name has filled. Nanak says: I give myself to them completely.
A life without remembering the One is like a field with no rain, or money locked away unused.
Two pictures carry this verse. Both are about waste, not wickedness.
The first is a crop that withers with no rain. Bin simran din rain baritha bihaa-ay — without remembrance, day and night pass in vain. Simran means remembering the One. Picture a field that was ploughed, planted, and cared for. Everything was done right, except the one thing no farmer controls. Without rain, all of it is lost. Days without remembering are that field.
The second is a miser's money. Ji-o kirpan kay niraarath daam — like the useless wealth of a miser. It is huge and safe, and it helps no one. Money was never meant to be stacked. It was meant to flow. Work without remembering the One is that locked box.
The word for a person who lives this way is saakat. It does not mean someone who believes the wrong things. It means a heart closed to wonder.
Notice the turn at the end. The verse moves from the stale breath of a mouth without the Name to a double blessing. Dhan dhan tay jan jih ghat basi-o har naa-o — blessed, blessed are those whose hearts hold the Name. Sukhmani always ends at a door, never a wall.
What are you carefully saving or building that will mean nothing unless something living flows through it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI