Raag Gauree
Commentary

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

Remembering where you started and how little you can keep shrinks a swollen pride; even a forgetful heart is reached by mercy, lifted in good company.

The Arc

This shorter Du-Pada has the Pause and two verses. Pauri0 (Pause) deflates garab (pride) by pointing back to our small origins and our inability to hold on to anything. Pauri1 observes, ecumenically, that we chase hardest the very things wise teachers and holy people across traditions counsel restraint about — like a gambler doubling down. Pauri2 closes: the One empties and fills all, and though we forget to love that One, mercy lifts even the forgetful in good company.

Key Vocabulary

  • garab: pride/arrogance — deflated by remembering mool (humble origin)
  • bayd santnaa: Vedas and the holy ones — shared human wisdom counseling restraint
  • indree: the senses/cravings that seem to "run the show" like a losing gambler's compulsion
  • haran bharan: the One who empties and fills — master of loss and gain
  • kirpaa nidh: the Treasure of Mercy that lifts even the forgetful

Themes and Cross-Connections

The pairing of bayd (Vedas) and sant (saints) as joint sources of caution is quietly ecumenical — wisdom presented as shared across traditions, per the project's interfaith evenhandedness. The ending's rescue-not-reproach (mercy reaches the forgetful) restates the grace-lens: grace does not wait for us to deserve it. Pride deflated by remembering smallness is the humility that lets goodness stand (cf. B00C456's house of sand).

For Raag Gauree

Gauree's sober self-examination compresses well into the Du-Pada form: a quick, clarifying splash of perspective on pride, resolving into mercy.

Translation Notes

Sant Singh Khalsa renders Pauri1's baybarjat bayd santnaa as "forbidden by the Vedas and the Saints." The Gurmukhi supports the joint reference; the project foregrounds it as shared cross-tradition wisdom counseling restraint, not one tradition prohibiting on another's behalf.


Last updated: 2026

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