"O my dear beloved — come home." A Chhant of tender longing that ends in a child's joy at the sight of its mother.
The Arc
A six-verse Chhant whose every line is softened by the refrain mayray piaari-aa (O my dear beloved), calling the wandering mind home. Verse 1: O stranger mind, come home — where the One already waits to dwell in the home of your self. Verse 2 is honest mid-journey hope: I have not yet tasted the love, my desires aren't quenched — but I still hope, while youth passes. Verse 3 uses the chatrik (rain-bird) longing for a single drop, and the sleeplessness of separation, resolving in finding the True Friend. Verse 4: spring has come (the month of Chayt), but without the Beloved the courtyard fills with dust — yet hope holds, ending in the melting image of joy like a child gazing upon its mother. Verse 5 is fulfillment: hopes filled, a sacrifice to the Guru. Verse 6 states the thesis — without the Beloved there is no play of love — and closes with the search resolved: grasping the Guru, beholding the Beloved.
Key Vocabulary
Mayray piaari-aa (refrain) — O my dear beloved: the tenderness softening every line; a homecoming wished, not demanded.
Pardaysee man... ghar aavai (v.1) — stranger mind, come home: the wandering self called in.
Chatrik (v.3) — the rain-bird waiting open-beaked for one drop: single-hearted longing.
Month of Chayt / courtyard of dust (v.4) — spring's beauty hollow without love.
Joy like a child gazing on its mother (v.4) — longing resolved into the safest joy there is.
Translation Notes
Bridal/seasonal imagery. The soul-bride voice and the Chayt (spring) season-poem convention rendered for children in the register of homesickness and hopeful love; the Baarah-Maha (twelve-month) resonance noted here.
v.2 — "youth passing, death stealing breath." The memento-mori softened to "time is passing... don't waste the chance," per voice rules.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The chatrik is one of Mehl 4's signature love-similes (B00C716, B00C724–725). "Stranger mind, come home" ties to the pardesi thread (B00C888, B00C928, B00C938). The Chayt/season-poem convention connects to Maajh's Baarah Maaha (B00C242, philosophy.md). And "joy like a child at its mother" rhymes with the child-parent tenderness of B00C950 ("I am a child, You are my father").
For Raag Aasaa
This Chhant is aasaa — hope — in its most intimate form: the honesty of longing that has not yet arrived, holding faithfully to hope while still hungry, and trusting that the rain comes to the open-beaked bird. And it gives a child the safest picture of the goal: not a distant reward, but the simple, whole joy of a small one lighting up at the face of the one who loves them most.
"O my dear beloved — come home." A Chhant of tender longing that ends in a child's joy at the sight of its mother.
The Arc
A six-verse Chhant whose every line is softened by the refrain mayray piaari-aa (O my dear beloved), calling the wandering mind home. Verse 1: O stranger mind, come home — where the One already waits to dwell in the home of your self. Verse 2 is honest mid-journey hope: I have not yet tasted the love, my desires aren't quenched — but I still hope, while youth passes. Verse 3 uses the chatrik (rain-bird) longing for a single drop, and the sleeplessness of separation, resolving in finding the True Friend. Verse 4: spring has come (the month of Chayt), but without the Beloved the courtyard fills with dust — yet hope holds, ending in the melting image of joy like a child gazing upon its mother. Verse 5 is fulfillment: hopes filled, a sacrifice to the Guru. Verse 6 states the thesis — without the Beloved there is no play of love — and closes with the search resolved: grasping the Guru, beholding the Beloved.
Key Vocabulary
Translation Notes
Themes and Cross-Connections
The chatrik is one of Mehl 4's signature love-similes (B00C716, B00C724–725). "Stranger mind, come home" ties to the pardesi thread (B00C888, B00C928, B00C938). The Chayt/season-poem convention connects to Maajh's Baarah Maaha (B00C242, philosophy.md). And "joy like a child at its mother" rhymes with the child-parent tenderness of B00C950 ("I am a child, You are my father").
For Raag Aasaa
This Chhant is aasaa — hope — in its most intimate form: the honesty of longing that has not yet arrived, holding faithfully to hope while still hungry, and trusting that the rain comes to the open-beaked bird. And it gives a child the safest picture of the goal: not a distant reward, but the simple, whole joy of a small one lighting up at the face of the one who loves them most.
Last updated: 2026-07-05