Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Many millions live turned in on themselves. Many millions cannot see past their own ignorance.
Many millions grip their money with stone hearts; many millions have souls gone dry as old leaves.
Many millions take what is not theirs; many millions chew on the failings of others; many millions wear themselves out chasing the glitter; many millions wander far from home.
Whatever each one was attached to - that is what runs them. Nanak says: only the Maker knows the workings of what He made.
Millions of people have lost their way, and only the Maker understands all of it.
The list is honest. The self-centered and those who cannot see. The stingy and the dry-hearted. Thieves, and people who speak badly of others. People worn out chasing Maya, the glitter of the world. People wandering far from home. They are counted in the same calm voice that counted the saints. There is no disgust. It is a list, not a scolding.
Then comes the line that changes what the whole dark list means: jit jit laavhu tit tit lagnaa, "whatever You attach them to, with that they are engaged." Think of a big drawing where some lines are crooked. Even the crooked lines are drawn on the one page. No one has wandered outside the Maker's knowing or care. Another hymn has the same wide mercy when it asks, "whom shall we call bad, when there is no other?"
This does not make it all right to go wrong. The verse explains why lost people exist. It does not excuse losing the way. And its last words hand the whole account book to the only One who can read all of it.
When you see someone doing wrong, can you hold two things at once: this is wrong, and I do not know their whole story?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI