The stranger soul comes home to the Ocean of Peace.
The Arc
An eight-verse shabad in Aasaavaree (a tender variant of Aasaa), moving from love kindled to love consummated. The Pause states the theme as feeling, not doctrine: mere man har si-o laagee preet — my mind has fallen in love — kept clean in saadhsang, good company. Verse 1 makes the love a thirst (darsan kee pi-aas ghanee) that keeps picturing the Beloved and can only ask for grace, not force the meeting. Verse 2 gives the hymn its central self-portrait: man pardesee — the mind as a homesick foreigner, whose long shopping ends not in a thing but in a love, naameh rang. Verses 3–4 draw the one comparison the raag keeps drawing: Maya's colors are real but pass in a blink (khin), while the Name is nihchal, unmoving — so befriend the steady and inherit a resting place that holds. Verse 5 tells the sober truth that even beloved friends, children, kin cannot be the final companion; only the Name, held by the Master of the meek, goes all the way. Verse 6 offers the boat — the Lotus Feet as bohith, ferrying the soul across the fearful ocean, the crossing and the love born in one meeting with the Perfect Guru. Verse 7 distills the entire spiritual life into one prayer — visar na saas giraas, may I not forget You for a breath or a morsel — and one surrender — jo tudh bhaavai so bhalaa, whatever pleases You is good. Verse 8 is the homecoming: meeting the Ocean of Peace, bliss wells up and every pain is erased in the presence of parmaanand, joy itself.
Key Vocabulary
Laagee preet (Pause) — love has taken hold: the hymn's engine; devotion as falling, not deciding.
Darsan kee pi-aas (v.1) — thirst for the sight of the Beloved: longing as physical need, the whole self leaning toward one thing.
Man pardesee (v.2) — the mind as homesick foreigner: the restless mind reframed as lost, not wicked — shopping in wrong markets for a love, not a thing.
Khin / nihchal (vv.3–4) — a blink / unmoving: Maya's pleasures pass in an instant; the Name alone stands still.
Ek nivaahoo (v.5) — the one that sees you through: the sole companion for the whole road, held by deenaa kaa naath, Master of the meek.
Charan kamal bohith (v.6) — the Lotus Feet as boat: crossing the ocean by clinging, not by strength.
Visar na saas giraas (v.7) — forget not for a breath or a morsel: remembrance woven into breathing and eating, the body's two constants.
Sukh saagar / parmaanand (v.8) — Ocean of Peace / Lord of Supreme Bliss: the destination of all longing turns out to be joy itself.
Translation Notes
Verse 7 — visar na saas giraas. The Literal Meaning renders the Saints' prayer as "May I never forget You." The Gurmukhi is a plea not to forget — one of the raag's rare places where the devotional wish is framed as a negative. The editorial voice-rule for the children's section prefers positive framing ("let me always remember"), and the underlying spirit is exactly that constant remembrance; the note flags the source's negative phrasing without altering the sacred Literal Meaning.
Verse 2 — pardesee. SSK's "stranger soul" is apt; pardesi specifically is one living in a foreign land (pardes), so the nuance is homesickness — the mind estranged from its own country — which the children's section makes explicit ("a traveler far from home").
Themes and Cross-Connections
The pardesi (homesick soul) portrait connects directly back to B00C888, the shabad that closed the Mehl 5 block — "O my stranger soul" — making this shabad a gentle reprise of that image, now resolved: the stranger comes home. The boat of the Lotus Feet (charan kamal bohith) rhymes with the many ferry/ocean-crossing verses of the raag (B00C751 "Guru as boat across the ocean of fire"). The khin/nihchal contrast — pleasures that pass in a blink versus the one unmoving Name — restates the memento-mori conscience that runs through all of Aasaa, but in a warm rather than alarming key. And verse 7's twin gifts — remembrance in every breath and bhaanaa (glad acceptance of the Will) — anticipate the three Songs of Separation that immediately follow (B00C929–931), whose whole burden is longing (visar na) resolving into surrender (jo tudh bhaavai so bhalaa).
For Raag Aasaa
If the previous hymn built hope as a city, this one restores hope as a homecoming. The restless, homesick mind is not condemned but understood — it was only ever looking for the love it finds at last. Aasaa's promise to a child is exactly this: the longing you feel is not a flaw, it is a compass; follow it into good company and it lands you in an ocean of peace, where the aches you carried simply melt.
The stranger soul comes home to the Ocean of Peace.
The Arc
An eight-verse shabad in Aasaavaree (a tender variant of Aasaa), moving from love kindled to love consummated. The Pause states the theme as feeling, not doctrine: mere man har si-o laagee preet — my mind has fallen in love — kept clean in saadhsang, good company. Verse 1 makes the love a thirst (darsan kee pi-aas ghanee) that keeps picturing the Beloved and can only ask for grace, not force the meeting. Verse 2 gives the hymn its central self-portrait: man pardesee — the mind as a homesick foreigner, whose long shopping ends not in a thing but in a love, naameh rang. Verses 3–4 draw the one comparison the raag keeps drawing: Maya's colors are real but pass in a blink (khin), while the Name is nihchal, unmoving — so befriend the steady and inherit a resting place that holds. Verse 5 tells the sober truth that even beloved friends, children, kin cannot be the final companion; only the Name, held by the Master of the meek, goes all the way. Verse 6 offers the boat — the Lotus Feet as bohith, ferrying the soul across the fearful ocean, the crossing and the love born in one meeting with the Perfect Guru. Verse 7 distills the entire spiritual life into one prayer — visar na saas giraas, may I not forget You for a breath or a morsel — and one surrender — jo tudh bhaavai so bhalaa, whatever pleases You is good. Verse 8 is the homecoming: meeting the Ocean of Peace, bliss wells up and every pain is erased in the presence of parmaanand, joy itself.
Key Vocabulary
Translation Notes
Themes and Cross-Connections
The pardesi (homesick soul) portrait connects directly back to B00C888, the shabad that closed the Mehl 5 block — "O my stranger soul" — making this shabad a gentle reprise of that image, now resolved: the stranger comes home. The boat of the Lotus Feet (charan kamal bohith) rhymes with the many ferry/ocean-crossing verses of the raag (B00C751 "Guru as boat across the ocean of fire"). The khin/nihchal contrast — pleasures that pass in a blink versus the one unmoving Name — restates the memento-mori conscience that runs through all of Aasaa, but in a warm rather than alarming key. And verse 7's twin gifts — remembrance in every breath and bhaanaa (glad acceptance of the Will) — anticipate the three Songs of Separation that immediately follow (B00C929–931), whose whole burden is longing (visar na) resolving into surrender (jo tudh bhaavai so bhalaa).
For Raag Aasaa
If the previous hymn built hope as a city, this one restores hope as a homecoming. The restless, homesick mind is not condemned but understood — it was only ever looking for the love it finds at last. Aasaa's promise to a child is exactly this: the longing you feel is not a flaw, it is a compass; follow it into good company and it lands you in an ocean of peace, where the aches you carried simply melt.
Last updated: 2026-07-05