Kirat Karo Does Not Mean What Most People Think It Means
Guru Nanak gave his followers three pillars: naam japo, kirat karo, vand chhako. The middle one, kirat karo, gets translated as "work hard" in most casual retellings, and that translation loses almost everything. Kirat does not mean effort. It means righteous, honest labor. The distinction is not minor. A person can work eighteen-hour days and still violate kirat completely. A person can work six hours and satisfy it fully. The measure is not output or income. The measure is whether the work itself is clean.
