All the busy experts fell asleep at their own work — so stay awake facing the light.
The Arc
Kabir lines up the scholar, the yogi, the renunciate, and the penitent, each maatay, drunk on their own practice and pride, and so asleep to what matters. The rahau warns that while all doze, dazzled by maya, the thieves are already inside the house. Then a roll-call of the genuinely awake — Suk Dayv, Akrur, Hanuman, Shiva, and the bhagats Naam Dayv and Jai Dayv, awake even in the hard age. The close names the best waking: to face the teaching, and to make the body's finest act the keeping of the Name.
Key Vocabulary
maatay — intoxicated, drunk (here on one's own practice, not wine).
jaagai — awake, aware.
mad — wine; here the wine of maya.
gurmukh — one turned toward the teaching.
bhaj raam naam — to keep and vibrate the Name.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The awake-versus-asleep theme runs through Gurbani's picture of maya as a dazzling surface, and the roll-call places Naam Dayv and Jai Dayv, later voices of this very block, among the awake. It pairs naturally with the following ulat-baasi shabad, which also asks the reader to see past appearances.
For Raag Basant
Within the raag, this shabad keeps spring's aliveness honest: blossoming is not busy display but genuine wakefulness. It reads as a caution against mistaking effort or expertise for the real awakening the raag celebrates.
Translation Notes
The critique of intoxication is spread evenhandedly across scholar, yogi, renunciate, and penitent — formalism in every role, never one faith singled out. mad (maya's wine) is rendered as being dazzled by shiny surfaces rather than any literal drink, keeping the image age-appropriate.
All the busy experts fell asleep at their own work — so stay awake facing the light.
The Arc
Kabir lines up the scholar, the yogi, the renunciate, and the penitent, each maatay, drunk on their own practice and pride, and so asleep to what matters. The rahau warns that while all doze, dazzled by maya, the thieves are already inside the house. Then a roll-call of the genuinely awake — Suk Dayv, Akrur, Hanuman, Shiva, and the bhagats Naam Dayv and Jai Dayv, awake even in the hard age. The close names the best waking: to face the teaching, and to make the body's finest act the keeping of the Name.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The awake-versus-asleep theme runs through Gurbani's picture of maya as a dazzling surface, and the roll-call places Naam Dayv and Jai Dayv, later voices of this very block, among the awake. It pairs naturally with the following ulat-baasi shabad, which also asks the reader to see past appearances.
For Raag Basant
Within the raag, this shabad keeps spring's aliveness honest: blossoming is not busy display but genuine wakefulness. It reads as a caution against mistaking effort or expertise for the real awakening the raag celebrates.
Translation Notes
The critique of intoxication is spread evenhandedly across scholar, yogi, renunciate, and penitent — formalism in every role, never one faith singled out. mad (maya's wine) is rendered as being dazzled by shiny surfaces rather than any literal drink, keeping the image age-appropriate.