Is there a friend who can free me, steady my mind, speak the Name to me? For such a friend I would give my very soul.
The Arc
Picture being lost in a new city with a dead phone. You need a way home, and someone to show it to you. Your mind keeps running off in every direction. So you ask: is there a friend who can help me get steady? For a friend like that, you would give everything you own. Here is how to find one. Let go of wanting other people's stuff, and of talking behind their backs. Spend your time in the Sangat, singing the One's praise. That keeps your mind awake. And the friend you were looking for turns out to be the One, holding you the way a mother holds her child. At the centre, the Rahao: a friend who brings you to the One is worth all you have.
Key Vocabulary
chhutkaavai: releases, unbinds
asthir / nihchal: steady, unwavering
sagal samagree jee-o hee-o: all belongings, soul, and heart
nindaa: speaking ill of others
keertan man jaagai: praise keeps the mind awake
ji-o maataa baal: as a mother with her child
Themes and Cross-Connections
The search-for-a-friend framing turns the longing of Dhanaasaree into a relationship rather than an achievement. The practical instruction to aim love away from envy and nindaa and toward keertan is everyday ethics, and the closing mother-and-child image — shared with 1417 — marks the tender intimacy that unifies this Guru Arjan set.
For Raag Dhanaasaree
In the raag of longing, this shabad names the longing outright as the search for a friend, and answers it with the discovery that the truest friend was never far: the One holds the seeker as a mother holds her child.
Hukumnama
Subject: The friend worth everything is the One Preview: loosened bonds, a wandering mind, envy and gossip set down, and a mother holding her child.
Today: Picture being lost in a new city with a dead phone. You need a way home, and someone to show it to you. Your mind keeps running off in every direction. So you ask: is there a friend who can help me get steady? For a friend like that, you would give everything you own. Here is how to find one. Let go of wanting other people's stuff, and of talking behind their backs. Spend your time in the Sangat, singing the One's praise. That keeps your mind awake. And the friend you were looking for turns out to be the One, holding you the way a mother holds her child.
The One is the friend worth giving everything for.
For today: Say something kind today about someone who is not in the room.
Is there a friend who can free me, steady my mind, speak the Name to me? For such a friend I would give my very soul.
The Arc
Picture being lost in a new city with a dead phone. You need a way home, and someone to show it to you. Your mind keeps running off in every direction. So you ask: is there a friend who can help me get steady? For a friend like that, you would give everything you own. Here is how to find one. Let go of wanting other people's stuff, and of talking behind their backs. Spend your time in the Sangat, singing the One's praise. That keeps your mind awake. And the friend you were looking for turns out to be the One, holding you the way a mother holds her child. At the centre, the Rahao: a friend who brings you to the One is worth all you have.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The search-for-a-friend framing turns the longing of Dhanaasaree into a relationship rather than an achievement. The practical instruction to aim love away from envy and nindaa and toward keertan is everyday ethics, and the closing mother-and-child image — shared with 1417 — marks the tender intimacy that unifies this Guru Arjan set.
For Raag Dhanaasaree
In the raag of longing, this shabad names the longing outright as the search for a friend, and answers it with the discovery that the truest friend was never far: the One holds the seeker as a mother holds her child.
Hukumnama
Subject: The friend worth everything is the One Preview: loosened bonds, a wandering mind, envy and gossip set down, and a mother holding her child.
Today: Picture being lost in a new city with a dead phone. You need a way home, and someone to show it to you. Your mind keeps running off in every direction. So you ask: is there a friend who can help me get steady? For a friend like that, you would give everything you own. Here is how to find one. Let go of wanting other people's stuff, and of talking behind their backs. Spend your time in the Sangat, singing the One's praise. That keeps your mind awake. And the friend you were looking for turns out to be the One, holding you the way a mother holds her child.
The One is the friend worth giving everything for.
For today: Say something kind today about someone who is not in the room.