Raag Gauree
Commentary

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

The Name is the support under every breath; the One is both the silence beyond all forms and the life inside every form, and to be fully known is the deepest rest.

The Arc

Pauri0 (Pause) pours out sacrificial devotion and names the Name the very support of the life-breath. Pauri1 makes the Oneness both Doer and Cause-of-causes, the one tek under all beings. Pauri2 gives the shabad's philosophical heart: the One is nirgun (beyond form) and sargun (in every form) at once. Pauri3 assures constant protection, seen only through the clarity the teaching gives. Pauri4 closes on the Inner-knower — being fully known and still held, the deepest rest.

Key Vocabulary

  • paraan adhree-aa: the support of the life-breath — the Name under every breath
  • karan karaavan: Doer and Cause-of-causes; the One who does and enables all doing
  • nirgun / sargun: without-attributes / with-attributes — the One as both formless and in-all-forms
  • antarjaamee: the Inner-knower who reads the heart — here, intimacy, not surveillance
  • takee-aa: a cushion to lean on; the One as pillow and strength

Themes and Cross-Connections

NirgunNsargun is a cornerstone of Sikh non-duality and connects directly to the project's Ik Onkar reading: not a distant formless deity or a world of forms, but one reality that is both. Antarjaamee is reframed (per the project's warmth) from all-seeing judge to the comfort of being fully known and still safe — a recurring pastoral move. Karan karaavan is a signature Guru Arjan phrase for total divine agency.

For Raag Gauree

The raag's contemplative depth carries the abstract nirgunNsargun teaching without strain, resolving its metaphysics into the very human image of a pillow to lean on.


Last updated: 2026

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