Raag Gauree
Commentary

Raag Gauree, Chau-Pada, Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan)

Keep the One close in your heart, sing and remember together, and everywhere you look you begin to see it.

The Arc

A shabad moving from heart to horizon. Pauri 0: enshrine the One in the heart and, meeting the perfect Guru, be carried across. The Rahao (Pauri 1): sing praise together while holding the Name inside. Pauri 2: the hard-to-obtain (dulabh) human body becomes parvaan, approved, carrying the mark of the Name. Pauri 3: remembrance plus good company dissolves fear and doubt. Pauri 4: wherever you look, the One is there — so you rest in it.

Key Vocabulary

  • charan kamal / nistaaray: lotus-feet (beautiful reverenced presence) / ferried across, the shabad's word for liberation
  • dulabh dayh: the hard-to-obtain human body
  • neesaan: banner, mark, insignia — the Name as identity and belonging
  • pooran pad: the state of completeness
  • jat kat... tat rahi-aa samaa-ay: wherever you look, the One is pervading

Themes and Cross-Connections

The shabad's arc runs from the hirdai (heart) in Pauri 0 to jat kat (everywhere you look) in Pauri 4 — inner presence expanding into an all-pervading vision. This is the Ik Onkar teaching in motion: the One is not distant but the very fabric of what you see. The dulabh dayh line calls the human body hard to obtain; reading that as a life 'worth using well' is this commentary's interpretive framing.

For Raag Gauree

Gauree's contemplative depth suits this widening gaze — beginning in one heart and ending in a world where the One is visible everywhere.

Read this shabad →
← Back to Raag Gauree