Raag Bhairao, Ashtapadee-style shabad (eight stanzas with rahau), Bhagat Kabir
When I ask, I ask only from the One — the Source of it all.
The Arc
A soaring catalog of the boundless. Kabir piles up "millions" — suns, moons, Shivas, Durgas, Brahmas, gods, stars, winds, oceans, clouds, treasurers, Indras, celestial singers, sciences — each a countless servant before one vast Source. The rahau plants the point at the center: with all these figures around, when I ask for anything, I ask only from the One. The later stanzas gather the great epics (Rama and Raavan, Duryodhan's pride humbled) to show the One lifting the humble and softening the proud, then confess that even so, no praise reaches the Boundless One's edge. The hymn ends with a single, tender request: give me a fearless heart.
Key Vocabulary
Kot / kotik — millions, countless. Mahaadev, Kailash — Shiva and his mountain. Durgaa, Brahmaa, Bed — Durga, Brahma, the Vedas. Sur — the classes of gods. Kayval raam — the One alone. Baasak — the mythic serpent. Lakhimee (Lakshmi) — goddess of abundance. Indar — Indra. Gandharab — celestial musicians. Paarbrahm — the Supreme, the Boundless. Abhai pad — the state of fearlessness, fearless dignity.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The hymn's engine is scale: by making every grand god and force a "countless servant," Kabir points past the many to the One Source (Ik Onkar) they all express. Its rahau is a model of focused devotion — honoring the whole pantheon of imagery while taking one's deepest need straight to the One. The closing plea for abhai pad connects to the scripture's steady prizing of fearlessness as the mark of a soul at rest.
For Raag Bhairao
Bhairao's expansive, awake brightness carries this hymn of cosmic abundance well — a vision of a universe teeming with servants of one Source — and grounds it, at the end, in a very human and quiet request for a fearless heart.
Translation Notes
— Interfaith / respect (full strength): the hymn's large Hindu-mythological catalog — Shiva/Kailash, Durga, Brahma/Vedas, the thirty-three classes of gods, Indra, Lakshmi, gandharvas, and in Pauri7 Rama/Raavan, the Puranas, and Duryodhan — is rendered reverently, as shared imagery pointing to the boundless One, never mocked or dismissed. — Evenhanded reading:aan dev si-o naahee kaam ("no business with other deities") is presented as a turn toward the single Source, not as scorn for the many figures just honored. — Wellbeing:dharam as "Judges of Death" softened to "guardians of fairness"; lat chhootee bikraal ("wild dishevelled-haired demons") softened to "wild, untamed forces of nature," keeping awe without fright for children. — Abhai pad rendered "a heart that lives without fear," the hymn's closing gift of grace.
When I ask, I ask only from the One — the Source of it all.
The Arc
A soaring catalog of the boundless. Kabir piles up "millions" — suns, moons, Shivas, Durgas, Brahmas, gods, stars, winds, oceans, clouds, treasurers, Indras, celestial singers, sciences — each a countless servant before one vast Source. The rahau plants the point at the center: with all these figures around, when I ask for anything, I ask only from the One. The later stanzas gather the great epics (Rama and Raavan, Duryodhan's pride humbled) to show the One lifting the humble and softening the proud, then confess that even so, no praise reaches the Boundless One's edge. The hymn ends with a single, tender request: give me a fearless heart.
Key Vocabulary
Kot / kotik — millions, countless. Mahaadev, Kailash — Shiva and his mountain. Durgaa, Brahmaa, Bed — Durga, Brahma, the Vedas. Sur — the classes of gods. Kayval raam — the One alone. Baasak — the mythic serpent. Lakhimee (Lakshmi) — goddess of abundance. Indar — Indra. Gandharab — celestial musicians. Paarbrahm — the Supreme, the Boundless. Abhai pad — the state of fearlessness, fearless dignity.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The hymn's engine is scale: by making every grand god and force a "countless servant," Kabir points past the many to the One Source (Ik Onkar) they all express. Its rahau is a model of focused devotion — honoring the whole pantheon of imagery while taking one's deepest need straight to the One. The closing plea for abhai pad connects to the scripture's steady prizing of fearlessness as the mark of a soul at rest.
For Raag Bhairao
Bhairao's expansive, awake brightness carries this hymn of cosmic abundance well — a vision of a universe teeming with servants of one Source — and grounds it, at the end, in a very human and quiet request for a fearless heart.
Translation Notes
— Interfaith / respect (full strength): the hymn's large Hindu-mythological catalog — Shiva/Kailash, Durga, Brahma/Vedas, the thirty-three classes of gods, Indra, Lakshmi, gandharvas, and in Pauri7 Rama/Raavan, the Puranas, and Duryodhan — is rendered reverently, as shared imagery pointing to the boundless One, never mocked or dismissed. — Evenhanded reading: aan dev si-o naahee kaam ("no business with other deities") is presented as a turn toward the single Source, not as scorn for the many figures just honored. — Wellbeing: dharam as "Judges of Death" softened to "guardians of fairness"; lat chhootee bikraal ("wild dishevelled-haired demons") softened to "wild, untamed forces of nature," keeping awe without fright for children. — Abhai pad rendered "a heart that lives without fear," the hymn's closing gift of grace.