You alone hold up my mind; I live just by hearing of those who know You — and no one, however lost, is beyond Your lifting.
The Arc
Set to the tune Yaan-ree-ay, this shabad opens with its Rahau: You are my only support, and every other cleverness runs empty. From there it climbs through the Guru who is one with the ever-present One; through the confession that merely hearing of the God-knowers restores life, and the longing to keep their company; through the light that fills minds steeped in the pure Name; and finally to the widest note — those who sing and those who only listen are carried home, and not one heart, however rough or lost, is beyond the One's lifting.
Key Vocabulary
tayk: support, the thing one leans on
si-aanpaa: cleverness, clever plans — which run empty on their own
hajoor: ever-present, right here
sun sun jeevaa: I live by hearing — deep listening as nourishment
santsangat: the company of the good and wise
pargaaso: the inner light that fills the mind
udhrahi: are carried across, saved
balihaarai: an offering of oneself in gratitude
Themes and Cross-Connections
"I live by hearing" is Suniai felt in the body — company and its stories as actual nourishment. The prayer to serve the servants, and to behold the humble rather than the grand, is Gurbani's quiet leveling: the holy are the ordinary devoted, not the socially elevated. And the closing "even the most lost are carried home" is Guru Nanak's radical inclusivity restated by Guru Arjan — the One draws a circle that leaves no one outside.
For Raag Bilaaval
Bilaaval's gladness here is generosity: the raag's daylight falls on everyone alike, singer and listener, the steady and the lost. Its brightness is the confidence that the lifting is wide enough for all.
Translation Notes
Handled per the standing rules: (1) verse three's "pains of birth and death, and the fear of the Messenger of Death" are carried as the ache of coming-and-going easing with no fear-shadow — reassurance kept, death-terror dropped. (2) Verse four's sweeping literal list (pasoo, paret, mugadh — beasts, demons, fools) is rendered as "the roughest, the most lost, the ones everyone gives up on," foregrounding the radical inclusivity without contempt and without literalizing "demons." "Pleasing to God" (prabh bhaanay) is read as alignment with the One's flow, not favoritism.
You alone hold up my mind; I live just by hearing of those who know You — and no one, however lost, is beyond Your lifting.
The Arc
Set to the tune Yaan-ree-ay, this shabad opens with its Rahau: You are my only support, and every other cleverness runs empty. From there it climbs through the Guru who is one with the ever-present One; through the confession that merely hearing of the God-knowers restores life, and the longing to keep their company; through the light that fills minds steeped in the pure Name; and finally to the widest note — those who sing and those who only listen are carried home, and not one heart, however rough or lost, is beyond the One's lifting.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
"I live by hearing" is Suniai felt in the body — company and its stories as actual nourishment. The prayer to serve the servants, and to behold the humble rather than the grand, is Gurbani's quiet leveling: the holy are the ordinary devoted, not the socially elevated. And the closing "even the most lost are carried home" is Guru Nanak's radical inclusivity restated by Guru Arjan — the One draws a circle that leaves no one outside.
For Raag Bilaaval
Bilaaval's gladness here is generosity: the raag's daylight falls on everyone alike, singer and listener, the steady and the lost. Its brightness is the confidence that the lifting is wide enough for all.
Translation Notes
Handled per the standing rules: (1) verse three's "pains of birth and death, and the fear of the Messenger of Death" are carried as the ache of coming-and-going easing with no fear-shadow — reassurance kept, death-terror dropped. (2) Verse four's sweeping literal list (pasoo, paret, mugadh — beasts, demons, fools) is rendered as "the roughest, the most lost, the ones everyone gives up on," foregrounding the radical inclusivity without contempt and without literalizing "demons." "Pleasing to God" (prabh bhaanay) is read as alignment with the One's flow, not favoritism.
Last updated: 2026-07-08