I have to admit that I was not sure how to understand either the word "nakar" or the word "hell" in the translation. With just a little research, it came clear to me that the "hell" of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and even the ancient Persian religions, is not the "hell" mentioned in the tuk. It is true that "nakar" means hell, literally. However, "nakar" describes ideas of hell true in ancient India's cultures surrounding the bhagat movement and ultimately Guru Nanak. Nakar is not a place of torment after death. "Nakar" or "nakara" in Sanskrit is exactly how Gyani ji and Luckysingh ji describe it. In the here and now we attach ourselves to the torments of nakara through our passions, desire to get even, to shame others, to control others and amass power, all the while enshrining frenzy within ourselves. We fear that we ourselves will shamed, controlled, humiliated, impoverished. And that was the hell of Guru Nanak's time when ordinary people were fixated on causing suffering to others, perhaps to make up for their own suffering at the hands of the unscrupulous and the powerful. It is still true today. Thanks Ishna ji for asking the question; otherwise I would have just glossed over what Guru Nanak meant. (We know there is no hell in Sikhi.) When we connect with our lesser nature, we find ourselves in "nakar," a world of inescapable torment.
