Your harp-playing is in vain while the ox of your mind has wandered off; so yoke the restless mind, plant the Name in the field of the body, and water it — and the One will sprout there like a green field.
The Arc
Pauri 0: the Yogi's outer harp-playing is vain; sing the One's praises instead. The Pause (Pauri 1): feed the mind the teaching; bow to the One present through all ages. Pauri 2: the devastating image — you water the fields, but the oxen have wandered off. Pauri 3: the remedy — plant the Name in the field of the body, yoke the unstable mind like an ox, and irrigate with the Name. Pauri 4: all seekers follow the wisdom the One gives; Nanak prays only to be linked to the Inner-Knower.
Key Vocabulary
the wandered oxen: effort wasted because the mind has left the work
the field of the body: the body as farm, the mind as ox, the Name as seed and water (cf. B00C678)
Jangams: wandering Shaivite mendicants — among the world's many seekers
the Inner-Knower: the One who searches hearts, to whom Nanak prays
Themes and Cross-Connections
This shabad is addressed, like Guru Nanak's Bharthari shabads (B00C695–696), to a Yogi — relocating practice from outer technique to the heart (The Inward Turn). The field-and-ox farming image is Guru Ram Das's vivid version of B00C678's heart-as-farm: grace gives the seed and water, but you must yoke the wandering mind to the plough. "All follow the wisdom You give" is Hukam and the all-paths breadth of B00C691.
For Raag Aasaa
Aasaa's hope is agricultural and honest: no amount of skilled playing helps if the mind has strayed — but yoke it, plant the Name, and life turns green. The mood is plainspoken and earthy, ending in a bare, trusting prayer.
Your harp-playing is in vain while the ox of your mind has wandered off; so yoke the restless mind, plant the Name in the field of the body, and water it — and the One will sprout there like a green field.
The Arc
Pauri 0: the Yogi's outer harp-playing is vain; sing the One's praises instead. The Pause (Pauri 1): feed the mind the teaching; bow to the One present through all ages. Pauri 2: the devastating image — you water the fields, but the oxen have wandered off. Pauri 3: the remedy — plant the Name in the field of the body, yoke the unstable mind like an ox, and irrigate with the Name. Pauri 4: all seekers follow the wisdom the One gives; Nanak prays only to be linked to the Inner-Knower.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
This shabad is addressed, like Guru Nanak's Bharthari shabads (B00C695–696), to a Yogi — relocating practice from outer technique to the heart (The Inward Turn). The field-and-ox farming image is Guru Ram Das's vivid version of B00C678's heart-as-farm: grace gives the seed and water, but you must yoke the wandering mind to the plough. "All follow the wisdom You give" is Hukam and the all-paths breadth of B00C691.
For Raag Aasaa
Aasaa's hope is agricultural and honest: no amount of skilled playing helps if the mind has strayed — but yoke it, plant the Name, and life turns green. The mood is plainspoken and earthy, ending in a bare, trusting prayer.
Last updated: 2026-06-28