Dust the Guru's feet with your hair and be wakeful — for without the One nothing helps; the Guru is the only resting place, the Giver of the Name, the Supreme One Himself, to be meditated on every hour.
The Arc
Pauri 0: contemplate the Guru forever, dusting His feet with one's hair. The Pause (Pauri 1): be wakeful — without the One, attachment and entanglements are useless. Pauri 2: love the Word; when the Guru shows mercy, pain is destroyed. Pauri 3: without the Guru, no place of rest; the Guru gives the Name. Pauri 4: the Guru is the Supreme, Transcendent One — meditate on Him always.
Key Vocabulary
dusting the feet with one's hair: utmost humble devotion (cf. Shabad 116)
"be wakeful, O my mind": the call to wake (cf. Shabad 130)
the Guru as the only resting place: where the soul lays its weight down
the Guru-God identity: the Guru as the Supreme, Transcendent One
Themes and Cross-Connections
The exalting of the Guru to "the Supreme Lord God... the Transcendent Lord" is the Guru-God identity — a deeply devotional identification, read in this tradition as the Guru being so transparent to the One that meditating on the Guru is meditating on the One. "Be wakeful" answers the rare-wakefulness of Shabad 130. Dusting the feet with one's hair is the exalted-slave humility (Shabad 116, Shabad 158). Love-the-Word-then-mercy is the upside-down vessel (effort and grace).
For Raag Aasaa
Aasaa's hope rests wholly in the Guru — the only resting place, the giver of the Name, the One Himself. The mood is reverent and wakeful — a soul laying its weight down where it cannot fail.
Dust the Guru's feet with your hair and be wakeful — for without the One nothing helps; the Guru is the only resting place, the Giver of the Name, the Supreme One Himself, to be meditated on every hour.
The Arc
Pauri 0: contemplate the Guru forever, dusting His feet with one's hair. The Pause (Pauri 1): be wakeful — without the One, attachment and entanglements are useless. Pauri 2: love the Word; when the Guru shows mercy, pain is destroyed. Pauri 3: without the Guru, no place of rest; the Guru gives the Name. Pauri 4: the Guru is the Supreme, Transcendent One — meditate on Him always.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The exalting of the Guru to "the Supreme Lord God... the Transcendent Lord" is the Guru-God identity — a deeply devotional identification, read in this tradition as the Guru being so transparent to the One that meditating on the Guru is meditating on the One. "Be wakeful" answers the rare-wakefulness of Shabad 130. Dusting the feet with one's hair is the exalted-slave humility (Shabad 116, Shabad 158). Love-the-Word-then-mercy is the upside-down vessel (effort and grace).
For Raag Aasaa
Aasaa's hope rests wholly in the Guru — the only resting place, the giver of the Name, the One Himself. The mood is reverent and wakeful — a soul laying its weight down where it cannot fail.