Raag Devgandhaari
Commentary

Raag Devgandhaari, Shabad 17, Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan)

"Again and again, God puts up with the millions of sins of the supremely ungrateful ones."

The Arc

Prayer as the simple means to every blessing, even the siddhis (rahau); the one condition (drop pride, hold on) paired with the One's inexhaustible patience (v.1, which carries the shabad's two verse-blocks). (Files: Pauri0 and Pauri1.)

Key Vocabulary

  • ardaas / prayer — the humble turning-toward; sufficient for all blessings.
  • siddhis — yogic powers, here simply given, not laboriously earned.
  • hem of the robe / feet — the child's grip; the one condition is holding on.

Themes and Cross-Connections

"Blessings/siddhis by simple prayer" links to The Inward Turn (the substance, not the technique). Inexhaustible patience links to grace-before-works and to Sukhmani's "Mender of the broken." Hem-of-the-robe recurs across the raag (3040).

For Raag Devgandhaari

Its gentlest theology of access: prayer is enough, and the One's patience has already outlasted all your failures — so there is nothing to clean up before you come.

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