Raag Bhairao, Shabad (four stanzas with rahau), Bhagat Kabir
Naked we come and naked we go; even the golden fortress is left behind.
The Arc
You arrive with empty hands, and one day you leave the same way. Kings and queens too. So hold your stuff lightly. The One is every treasure you need. The things and people you love belong to the One. A row of fancy cars in the driveway stays in the driveway. A whole city of gold stayed behind when its king left. So spend some of your time doing good. Someone who treats life as one long bet leaves with empty hands. Goodness is the wealth you get to carry. At the centre, the Rahao: the One is every treasure, and all we hold belongs to the One.
Key Vocabulary
Naange — naked, empty-handed. Raajaa raanaa — kings and queens. Nau nidh — the nine legendary treasures. Sampai / kalat / dhan — possessions / spouse / wealth. Haathee — elephants (a status symbol). Raavan / Lankaa — the king and golden city of the old epics. Moorakh — foolish (here, the folly of clinging, not a slur). Gun — virtue, goodness. Ju-aaree — a gambler.
Themes and Cross-Connections
This sits directly beside the opening shabad's answer (the Naam as the one wealth) and gives the shadow side: what happens to those who bank on everything else. The theme is ancient and cross-traditional — “you can't take it with you” — but Kabir's turn is characteristically active: not “despair of the world” but “spend your short time making goodness.” It rhymes with the whole GGS insistence that virtue and the Naam, not accumulation, are what accompany the soul.
For Raag Bhairao
In bright, wakeful Bhairao, this reads less like a funeral bell and more like a morning reminder to travel light and pack the right things. Its energy is clarifying, not mournful.
Hukumnama
Subject: The One is every treasure I need Preview: empty hands at birth and at the end, nine treasures, elephants at the gate, a city of gold, a gambler.
Today: You arrive with empty hands, and one day you leave the same way. Kings and queens too. So hold your stuff lightly. The One is every treasure you need. The things and people you love belong to the One. A row of fancy cars in the driveway stays in the driveway. A whole city of gold stayed behind when its king left. So spend some of your time doing good. Someone who treats life as one long bet leaves with empty hands. Goodness is the wealth you get to carry.
The One is every treasure you need, and all you hold belongs to the One.
For today: Do one good thing today that no one asked you to do.
Naked we come and naked we go; even the golden fortress is left behind.
The Arc
You arrive with empty hands, and one day you leave the same way. Kings and queens too. So hold your stuff lightly. The One is every treasure you need. The things and people you love belong to the One. A row of fancy cars in the driveway stays in the driveway. A whole city of gold stayed behind when its king left. So spend some of your time doing good. Someone who treats life as one long bet leaves with empty hands. Goodness is the wealth you get to carry. At the centre, the Rahao: the One is every treasure, and all we hold belongs to the One.
Key Vocabulary
Naange — naked, empty-handed. Raajaa raanaa — kings and queens. Nau nidh — the nine legendary treasures. Sampai / kalat / dhan — possessions / spouse / wealth. Haathee — elephants (a status symbol). Raavan / Lankaa — the king and golden city of the old epics. Moorakh — foolish (here, the folly of clinging, not a slur). Gun — virtue, goodness. Ju-aaree — a gambler.
Themes and Cross-Connections
This sits directly beside the opening shabad's answer (the Naam as the one wealth) and gives the shadow side: what happens to those who bank on everything else. The theme is ancient and cross-traditional — “you can't take it with you” — but Kabir's turn is characteristically active: not “despair of the world” but “spend your short time making goodness.” It rhymes with the whole GGS insistence that virtue and the Naam, not accumulation, are what accompany the soul.
For Raag Bhairao
In bright, wakeful Bhairao, this reads less like a funeral bell and more like a morning reminder to travel light and pack the right things. Its energy is clarifying, not mournful.
Hukumnama
Subject: The One is every treasure I need Preview: empty hands at birth and at the end, nine treasures, elephants at the gate, a city of gold, a gambler.
Today: You arrive with empty hands, and one day you leave the same way. Kings and queens too. So hold your stuff lightly. The One is every treasure you need. The things and people you love belong to the One. A row of fancy cars in the driveway stays in the driveway. A whole city of gold stayed behind when its king left. So spend some of your time doing good. Someone who treats life as one long bet leaves with empty hands. Goodness is the wealth you get to carry.
The One is every treasure you need, and all you hold belongs to the One.
For today: Do one good thing today that no one asked you to do.