Serve even the servants, keep the heart low, and know the One who gave you your mind.
The Arc
The humility of the previous shabad deepens here. The devotee beholds the One ever-present and lives as the dust of kind feet. The rahau lifts the lowest-place ideal to its height: rare is the servant of servants, and that person attains the supreme status. The verses steady the heart on the One who never dies, dissolve self-conceit into clarity, and close by turning the mind back toward its own Giver — the One who gave the power to understand, tasted directly as sweet water after thirst.
Key Vocabulary
daasaa kaa daas — servant of the servants; lowest-place humility.
ootam padvee — the supreme status won through service.
daykh hajoor — beholding the ever-present One.
har ras — the divine essence, tasted directly.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The servant-of-servants ideal is one of Gurbani's clearest caste-levelers: worth is measured by service, not birth. The tasting-the-essence image recurs across the raag (B00C2494).
For Raag Basant
The seasonal imagery rests here while the raag makes its ethical point — spring of the heart grows in humble soil.
Translation Notes
Aap maar (subduing self-conceit) is read as setting down the separate-self feeling, not violence to the self. The mother-address (maa-ay) is kept as its tender family voice.
Serve even the servants, keep the heart low, and know the One who gave you your mind.
The Arc
The humility of the previous shabad deepens here. The devotee beholds the One ever-present and lives as the dust of kind feet. The rahau lifts the lowest-place ideal to its height: rare is the servant of servants, and that person attains the supreme status. The verses steady the heart on the One who never dies, dissolve self-conceit into clarity, and close by turning the mind back toward its own Giver — the One who gave the power to understand, tasted directly as sweet water after thirst.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The servant-of-servants ideal is one of Gurbani's clearest caste-levelers: worth is measured by service, not birth. The tasting-the-essence image recurs across the raag (B00C2494).
For Raag Basant
The seasonal imagery rests here while the raag makes its ethical point — spring of the heart grows in humble soil.
Translation Notes
Aap maar (subduing self-conceit) is read as setting down the separate-self feeling, not violence to the self. The mother-address (maa-ay) is kept as its tender family voice.