Raag Bilaaval
Commentary

Raag Bilaaval, Dupda, Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan)

Time moves and the body wears — but the thing worth guarding is kindness, and a hand can always lift you out.

The Arc

The Rahau is a gentle memento that body, wealth and youth all move on — turned toward opportunity, the chance to remember now. The first verse names the real loss not as the body's wearing but as the grip of 'mine, mine' that crowds out kindness. The close pictures harmful habits as a rough sea and answers with the raag's trademark rescue: taken by the arm and lifted up and out.

Key Vocabulary

  • tan Dhan joban chalat ga-i-aa: body, wealth and youth slipping by
  • mayree mayree: mine, mine — the grip of possessiveness
  • nah paree da-i-aa: kindness forgotten — the real cost
  • bikaar saagar: the rough sea of harmful habits
  • baah pakar kaadh la-i-aa: lifted out by the arm

Themes and Cross-Connections

Memento mori turned to invitation, possessiveness named as the true loss, and rescue-by-the-arm — the same lifting hand that closes B00C1841 and B00C1855 alike.

For Raag Bilaaval

Bilaaval's honesty about time softened by its trademark hand of rescue.

Translation Notes

SSK renders decay vividly (teeth crumbling and falling out) and frames life as sins committed in the night. Per the project's wellbeing rules the body's changes are rendered as gentle natural wearing and the accusatory night-imagery is set aside; the ego is treated as a habit to soften, not a sin to punish, and the shabad's own turn to rescue is foregrounded.

Last updated: 2026-07-08

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