Raag Bilaaval
Commentary

Raag Bilaaval, Du-Pada, Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan)

Nothing we chase comes with us; even kings set it all down. Pride trips itself, but a heart soaked in love is carried safely across.

The Arc

A Du-Pada folding Rahau and verse together. The Rahau names the tangles of Maya that go with no one, and the kings who must depart. The verse names pride tripping itself, then turns to the holy who speak truth and, soaked in love like cloth in dye, are carried across.

Key Vocabulary

  • maa-i-aa janjaal: the tangles of Maya that go with no one
  • chhatarpat: crowned kings, who must also depart
  • ahang-budh: the puffed-up ego that trips itself
  • rang laal: dyed deep red — soaked in the color of love
  • simar simar: remembering, remembering — what carries one across

Themes and Cross-Connections

The dyer's image is the heart of the close: soaked in love long enough, love becomes the color you are, and that color carries you. The ego is shown as self-tripping, an old pattern to loosen, not a self to condemn.

For Raag Bilaaval

Bilaaval holds the mortality theme lightly, tilting quickly from what cannot be kept toward the love that carries one safely through.

Translation Notes

The verse's harsher cycle-of-rebirth imagery is softened toward chasing-what-harms leaving one spinning in circles, per the wellbeing rules.


Last updated: 2026-07-08

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