There is one medicine for the soul — settle firmly on the One — while the world's sweetness distracts us and time quietly chews through the rope of our days.
The Arc
Pauri 0 prescribes a single cure: the One is the only medicine, mantra, and healing herb, destroyer of old karma. The Rahao (Pauri 1) says the One alone pleases the mind, while the world is engrossed in the three qualities and the One beyond them cannot be grasped. Pauri 2 gives two great images — Maya sweet as sugar that we over-carry, and the mouse of death gnawing the rope of life in the dark. Pauri 3 contrasts the suffering manmukh and the honored Gurmukh within Hukam. Pauri 4 closes on those overflowing with the One's love and Nanak's wish to be the dust of their feet.
Key Vocabulary
aukhad: the one medicine — settling firmly on the One
trai gun: the three qualities in which the world is engrossed; the One lies beyond
mooheaa / moose: the mouse of death gnawing the rope of life unseen in the dark
bharpoor: overflowing — those full of the One's love who lack nothing
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad joins philosophy.md's Trai Gun / Chautha Paad (the One cannot be grasped by a mind operating within the qualities) with Har Ras (the blessed are full, lacking nothing) and the humility of Sat Sangat (the dust of the feet). The mouse-and-rope image is one of Gurbani's most memorable pictures of time silently running out.
For Raag Gauree
Gauree's meditative weight lets the mouse-of-death image do its quiet, sobering work without melodrama. The shabad moves from a single clear prescription to a stark image of mortality and ends in the warmth of good company — the raag's full emotional range in five verses.
There is one medicine for the soul — settle firmly on the One — while the world's sweetness distracts us and time quietly chews through the rope of our days.
The Arc
Pauri 0 prescribes a single cure: the One is the only medicine, mantra, and healing herb, destroyer of old karma. The Rahao (Pauri 1) says the One alone pleases the mind, while the world is engrossed in the three qualities and the One beyond them cannot be grasped. Pauri 2 gives two great images — Maya sweet as sugar that we over-carry, and the mouse of death gnawing the rope of life in the dark. Pauri 3 contrasts the suffering manmukh and the honored Gurmukh within Hukam. Pauri 4 closes on those overflowing with the One's love and Nanak's wish to be the dust of their feet.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad joins philosophy.md's Trai Gun / Chautha Paad (the One cannot be grasped by a mind operating within the qualities) with Har Ras (the blessed are full, lacking nothing) and the humility of Sat Sangat (the dust of the feet). The mouse-and-rope image is one of Gurbani's most memorable pictures of time silently running out.
For Raag Gauree
Gauree's meditative weight lets the mouse-of-death image do its quiet, sobering work without melodrama. The shabad moves from a single clear prescription to a stark image of mortality and ends in the warmth of good company — the raag's full emotional range in five verses.
Last updated: 2026-06-28