My mind keeps getting pulled — how do I cross? Mercy is poured out, and like iron floated over on a raft of wood, the ones who cling to the One are carried across.
The Arc
Your mind gets tugged every which way. A buzz, a craving, a worry, and suddenly it is cloudy in there. Some days you wonder how you will ever get across to calm. Sing the Naam. Mercy pours down like rain, and the Guru carries you over. Think of a heavy piece of iron. Alone in the river, it sinks. Tied to a wooden raft, it rides across. Your heart can be heavy too. Tie it to the One, and it floats. Ask, the way a child asks a parent, for the understanding to sing. Then step into the Guru's cool pool of contentment. The mud rinses off. At the centre, the Rahao: sing the Naam, O mind, and meeting the True Guru, you are carried across.
Key Vocabulary
lubhat / mohi: lured / by attachment
narhar: the One (Lord of beings)
kaasat loh: wood and iron
saakat: one cut off, turned only outward
santokh gur saraa: the Guru's cleansing pool of contentment
paar paraa: carried across
Themes and Cross-Connections
The iron-and-wood image (sang kaasat loh taraa) is the shabad's jewel: iron sinks, but lashed to wood it floats — so a heavy heart, tied to the One, is carried over. Durmat mail ga-ee (the clouded thinking washed away) frames ego and confusion as dirt that rinses off, not a stain that damns.
For Raag Bilaaval
Bilaaval's well-being here is the lightness after the wash — the restless, pulled mind rinsed clean in the Guru's pool of contentment and floated across.
Translation Notes
Verse 3's saakat nar... bhaagheen duhchaaree... janam mu-ay fir maraa (in the older English translation, "faithless cynics... unfortunate and vicious... die and reincarnate") appears here with compassion: a heart cut off from the One stays restless and circling.
Hukumnama
Subject: Sing the Naam; the Guru carries you across Preview: a mind pulled every way, iron riding a wooden raft, a Father asked for help and a cool pool.
Today: Your mind gets tugged every which way. A buzz, a craving, a worry, and suddenly it is cloudy in there. Some days you wonder how you will ever get across to calm. Sing the Naam. Mercy pours down like rain, and the Guru carries you over. Think of a heavy piece of iron. Alone in the river, it sinks. Tied to a wooden raft, it rides across. Your heart can be heavy too. Tie it to the One, and it floats. Ask, the way a child asks a parent, for the understanding to sing. Then step into the Guru's cool pool of contentment. The mud rinses off.
Sing the Naam, and the Guru carries you across.
For today: When your mind feels cloudy today, pause and say the Naam three times, slowly.
My mind keeps getting pulled — how do I cross? Mercy is poured out, and like iron floated over on a raft of wood, the ones who cling to the One are carried across.
The Arc
Your mind gets tugged every which way. A buzz, a craving, a worry, and suddenly it is cloudy in there. Some days you wonder how you will ever get across to calm. Sing the Naam. Mercy pours down like rain, and the Guru carries you over. Think of a heavy piece of iron. Alone in the river, it sinks. Tied to a wooden raft, it rides across. Your heart can be heavy too. Tie it to the One, and it floats. Ask, the way a child asks a parent, for the understanding to sing. Then step into the Guru's cool pool of contentment. The mud rinses off. At the centre, the Rahao: sing the Naam, O mind, and meeting the True Guru, you are carried across.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The iron-and-wood image (sang kaasat loh taraa) is the shabad's jewel: iron sinks, but lashed to wood it floats — so a heavy heart, tied to the One, is carried over. Durmat mail ga-ee (the clouded thinking washed away) frames ego and confusion as dirt that rinses off, not a stain that damns.
For Raag Bilaaval
Bilaaval's well-being here is the lightness after the wash — the restless, pulled mind rinsed clean in the Guru's pool of contentment and floated across.
Translation Notes
Verse 3's saakat nar... bhaagheen duhchaaree... janam mu-ay fir maraa (in the older English translation, "faithless cynics... unfortunate and vicious... die and reincarnate") appears here with compassion: a heart cut off from the One stays restless and circling.
Hukumnama
Subject: Sing the Naam; the Guru carries you across Preview: a mind pulled every way, iron riding a wooden raft, a Father asked for help and a cool pool.
Today: Your mind gets tugged every which way. A buzz, a craving, a worry, and suddenly it is cloudy in there. Some days you wonder how you will ever get across to calm. Sing the Naam. Mercy pours down like rain, and the Guru carries you over. Think of a heavy piece of iron. Alone in the river, it sinks. Tied to a wooden raft, it rides across. Your heart can be heavy too. Tie it to the One, and it floats. Ask, the way a child asks a parent, for the understanding to sing. Then step into the Guru's cool pool of contentment. The mud rinses off.
Sing the Naam, and the Guru carries you across.
For today: When your mind feels cloudy today, pause and say the Naam three times, slowly.