Raag Gauree
Commentary

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

Near those who truly know the One, your whole being grows cool and calm; let the One who melts fear live in your mind, and fear has nowhere left to stay.

The Arc

Pauri 0: seek the sanctuary of those who truly know the One, and mind and body grow cool, steeped in the One's presence. The Rahao (Pauri 1): let bhai bhanjan, the shatterer of fear, dwell in you, and fear finds no home. Pauri 2: those with the Name in their hearts see deep hopes and daily tasks alike come to fruit. Pauri 3: the whole arc of life rests in the One's care, so remember with each breath and bite. Pauri 4 closes — the One is friend, companion, everything, and the Name is the one support to lean the whole self upon.

Key Vocabulary

  • sarnaa-ee jin har jaatay: the sanctuary of those who have known the One
  • man tan seetal: mind and body grown cool — the heart no longer burning with restlessness
  • bhai bhanjan: the shatterer of fear
  • simar saas giraas: remember with each breath and morsel — the ordinary rhythms as vessel
  • meet saajan sakhaa: friend, dear companion, constant comrade — all gathered in the One

Themes and Cross-Connections

The "cool" heart (seetal) is a classic Gurbani image of restlessness stilled. The turn in Pauri 3 — handing birth, aging, and death to the One and turning to breath-and-morsel remembrance — drains the dread from life's arc by holding it in care, a recurring comfort across this run (B00C391, B00C399).

Translation Notes

Pauri 1's literal warns that without the One in mind one spends countless incarnations in darpat darpat (fear and dread). Per our wellbeing rules this is bent toward hope: the invitation — let the fear-melting One dwell in you — is foregrounded over the dread of the alternative. The cure, not the threat, leads.

For Raag Gauree

Gauree's steadying sobriety suits a shabad whose whole motion is from fear to a cool, held calm — the fearless One making a home in the mind.


Last updated: 2026

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