O my mad mind, taste! — the last of the Third Guru's Aasaa Ashtapadees.
The Arc
The closing hymn of the Mehl 3 Ashtapadee block, gathering its threads into a final appeal to appetite. Verse 1 diagnoses the wandering as a gourmet's: lost among an ras — other tastes — sampling substitutes while the one nourishing taste goes untried, the True Guru unmet. The Pause is the block's most affectionate exasperation: O my mad mind (baavlay) — TASTE the essence of the One; hooked on other flavors, you let a priceless birth drain away. Verse 2 pauses mid-hymn for teaching's honest shrug: without the writ of grace nothing is obtained — what can saying or doing accomplish? — while naming where to wait: among the pure, absorbed in love. Verse 3 compresses the whole method into four verbs and a tautology: recognize the self, die in the Word, cast out corruption, run to Sanctuary — and the Forgiver forgives, never once out of character. Verse 4 states the two-sided law: without the Name no peace is found and the pain does not leave from within — the world's remedies only redistribute it. Verses 5–6 close the bridal thread: the forsaken, decorated and burning (why all the ornament, never knowing His worth?), against the happy brides wearing the one ornament — the Word — whom the Beloved Himself unites. Verse 7 sounds the final memento mori: death forgotten in Maya's darkness, the exhausting wheel (dying, dying, born, dying again). Verse 8 ends the block on its two deepest notes: united are those He unites — and the radiant faces (mukh ujlay) shining in the True Court, the face itself become the certificate.
Key Vocabulary
An ras — other tastes (verse 1, Pause): the endless menu of substitutes; none of them food.
Baavlaa — mad, crazy (Pause): the mind's specific madness — starving while circling the laid table.
Vin karmaa — without the writ of grace (verse 2): teaching's honest limit; the shrug that keeps religion humble.
Bakhsay bakhsanhaar — the Forgiver forgives (verse 3): the tautology with no suspense in it.
Bubaar — darkness (verse 7): Maya's amnesia-service; death dropped from the mind.
Mukh ujlay — radiant faces (verse 8): the block's closing image; the countenance as final certificate.
Translation Notes
Verse 2 — vin karmaa. The Literal Meaning reads "without the destiny of good karma." In Gurbani karam frequently carries the Persian-derived sense of grace/bounty rather than (or fused with) the Sanskrit sense of deeds — "without the writ of grace" keeps the verse aligned with its own shrug: if deeds could force it, saying and doing would not be declared helpless in the same line.
Themes and Cross-Connections
As the block's finale, this hymn deliberately re-sounds its predecessors: the an-ras diagnosis completes the har ras thread (taste versus menu) that opened the block's summit verses; the burning-decorated bride pairs with the estranged bride panels of the three bridal hymns; the forgotten-death verse restates the Kaafee alarms (wake up — the merchant is leaving) in their darkest register; and verse 3's four-verb method with its forgiving tautology compresses the entire Third-Mehl curriculum — aap pachhaan, sabad marai, Sanctuary, grace. The radiant-face close looks two ways at once: back to the cooled bodies and bright faces of the bridal hymn, and forward — mukh ujlay is the very blessing with which the tradition's daily Ardaas ends ("may the faces be radiant"), making this final verse a benediction the community still prays.
For Raag Aasaa
The Third Guru leaves the raag of hope with an appeal not to belief but to appetite: taste. Hope that has tasted is no longer hope deferred — it is the radiance already gathering in the face that will shine, uncertified and unquestioned, at the True Court.
O my mad mind, taste! — the last of the Third Guru's Aasaa Ashtapadees.
The Arc
The closing hymn of the Mehl 3 Ashtapadee block, gathering its threads into a final appeal to appetite. Verse 1 diagnoses the wandering as a gourmet's: lost among an ras — other tastes — sampling substitutes while the one nourishing taste goes untried, the True Guru unmet. The Pause is the block's most affectionate exasperation: O my mad mind (baavlay) — TASTE the essence of the One; hooked on other flavors, you let a priceless birth drain away. Verse 2 pauses mid-hymn for teaching's honest shrug: without the writ of grace nothing is obtained — what can saying or doing accomplish? — while naming where to wait: among the pure, absorbed in love. Verse 3 compresses the whole method into four verbs and a tautology: recognize the self, die in the Word, cast out corruption, run to Sanctuary — and the Forgiver forgives, never once out of character. Verse 4 states the two-sided law: without the Name no peace is found and the pain does not leave from within — the world's remedies only redistribute it. Verses 5–6 close the bridal thread: the forsaken, decorated and burning (why all the ornament, never knowing His worth?), against the happy brides wearing the one ornament — the Word — whom the Beloved Himself unites. Verse 7 sounds the final memento mori: death forgotten in Maya's darkness, the exhausting wheel (dying, dying, born, dying again). Verse 8 ends the block on its two deepest notes: united are those He unites — and the radiant faces (mukh ujlay) shining in the True Court, the face itself become the certificate.
Key Vocabulary
Translation Notes
Themes and Cross-Connections
As the block's finale, this hymn deliberately re-sounds its predecessors: the an-ras diagnosis completes the har ras thread (taste versus menu) that opened the block's summit verses; the burning-decorated bride pairs with the estranged bride panels of the three bridal hymns; the forgotten-death verse restates the Kaafee alarms (wake up — the merchant is leaving) in their darkest register; and verse 3's four-verb method with its forgiving tautology compresses the entire Third-Mehl curriculum — aap pachhaan, sabad marai, Sanctuary, grace. The radiant-face close looks two ways at once: back to the cooled bodies and bright faces of the bridal hymn, and forward — mukh ujlay is the very blessing with which the tradition's daily Ardaas ends ("may the faces be radiant"), making this final verse a benediction the community still prays.
For Raag Aasaa
The Third Guru leaves the raag of hope with an appeal not to belief but to appetite: taste. Hope that has tasted is no longer hope deferred — it is the radiance already gathering in the face that will shine, uncertified and unquestioned, at the True Court.
Last updated: 2026-07-03