Raag Gauree
Commentary

Raag Gauree, Ashtapadi (Du-Tukas), Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan)

The one who turns to the One in hardship is richer than the powerful who never look up; when you love the nearness of the One, lesser comforts stop calling.

The Arc

Pauri 0 levels rank: a person with almost nothing who turns to the One in hardship is richer inside than a powerful one who does harm and never looks up. The Rahao (Pauri 1): the One alone is the servant's greatness — being lost in glitter leads nowhere good. Pauri 2: hardship can turn us toward the Name, while a heart drunk on glitter finds no rest. Pauri 3: love for the One's nearness leaves no room for lesser comforts. Pauri 4 closes in intimate prayer — forever remember the One, and asks the heart-knower simply to meet.

Key Vocabulary

  • bikhai raaj / andhulaa: the harmful powerful one / the one with nothing — the leveling contrast
  • vadi-aa-ee: greatness — here, the One is the only greatness worth wanting
  • tha-ur na thaa-o: "no home, no resting place" — the restlessness of a heart with no true home
  • charan kamal si-o... preet: love fastened to the One's nearness
  • antarjaamee: the inner-knower, asked to "meet" us

Themes and Cross-Connections

The status-leveling here joins B00C388 (true heroism) and B00C391 (interiorized pilgrimage): worth measured by heart, not rank. The intimate close — asking the antarjaamee to meet — turns the most all-seeing name for the divine into the most tender.

Translation Notes

Two care-driven softenings. (1) The Pauri 0 contrast rests on andhulaa ("blind") in the literal; per our wellbeing rules the framing is shifted off any bodily defect onto what matters — the one who turns to the One in hardship has the true wealth. (2) Pauri 1's narak ("hell") for those lost in maa-i-aa is softened to "leads nowhere good," foregrounding where fullness lives rather than any place of torment.

For Raag Gauree

Gauree's sober reflection suits a shabad weighing inner wealth against outer power and landing on intimacy with the One.


Last updated: 2026

Read this shabad →
← Back to Raag Gauree