Do not let a whole life slip past without turning toward the One; it is the One who frees, and a single glance of grace carries you through the middle of the world.
The Arc
Guru Amar Das begins with a strong warning that a life spent never turning toward the One misses its own sweetness — a rung on the ladder skipped. The Rahao turns to comfort: You wipe away the sorrows of those who serve. The verses hold both truths together — everything rests in the One's mercy, the free person is simply the one who stays close, and one glance of grace changes a whole destiny.
Key Vocabulary
doojaa bhaa-o: the love of a second thing; being divided
jagjeevan daataa: Life of the world, the Great Giver
mukat / banDh: freedom / being bound
gahan gat: the deep, hidden state
nadar: the glance of grace
maa-i-aa maahi nistaaray: carried across in the very middle of the world
Themes and Cross-Connections
The freedom-and-bondage pair (mukat / banDh) is not a threat but a description: to be gurmukh (facing the teaching) is already to be free, and to face only yourself is already to feel bound. The great line maa-i-aa maahi nistaaray — freed inside the world, not by fleeing it — is the householder's liberation Sikhi keeps insisting on.
For Raag Bilaaval
Even opening on a warning, the shabad quickly turns to Bilaaval's brightness: the sorrows of those who serve are wiped away, and grace ferries them across right in the middle of ordinary life.
Translation Notes
Sant Singh Khalsa's opening renders Dharig as "cursed, cursed," and the third line as a wasted, "useless" life. For children the frightening self-curse is dropped: the kernel — a life that never turns toward the One misses its own sweetness, a chance not yet taken — is kept and bent toward hope (the rung can still be reached). The "Messenger of Death" of the last verse (kaaleh maar bidaaray) is rendered as losing all fear of death rather than as a terror to be conquered.
Do not let a whole life slip past without turning toward the One; it is the One who frees, and a single glance of grace carries you through the middle of the world.
The Arc
Guru Amar Das begins with a strong warning that a life spent never turning toward the One misses its own sweetness — a rung on the ladder skipped. The Rahao turns to comfort: You wipe away the sorrows of those who serve. The verses hold both truths together — everything rests in the One's mercy, the free person is simply the one who stays close, and one glance of grace changes a whole destiny.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The freedom-and-bondage pair (mukat / banDh) is not a threat but a description: to be gurmukh (facing the teaching) is already to be free, and to face only yourself is already to feel bound. The great line maa-i-aa maahi nistaaray — freed inside the world, not by fleeing it — is the householder's liberation Sikhi keeps insisting on.
For Raag Bilaaval
Even opening on a warning, the shabad quickly turns to Bilaaval's brightness: the sorrows of those who serve are wiped away, and grace ferries them across right in the middle of ordinary life.
Translation Notes
Sant Singh Khalsa's opening renders Dharig as "cursed, cursed," and the third line as a wasted, "useless" life. For children the frightening self-curse is dropped: the kernel — a life that never turns toward the One misses its own sweetness, a chance not yet taken — is kept and bent toward hope (the rung can still be reached). The "Messenger of Death" of the last verse (kaaleh maar bidaaray) is rendered as losing all fear of death rather than as a terror to be conquered.
Last updated: 2026-07-08