Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Friends, listen: this whole world was shaped by the One, spun into being like a great unfolding story.
And here is the wonder I can never quite hold in my mind — one person slips away, and the very next one is sure they will live forever. How strange, how amazing, that we forget the one thing we all share.
The world is full of wonder, and the biggest wonder is how we forget that everything changes.
This is the rahao, the "pause" line. It is the heart of the shabad, the line everything circles back to. It was written by Guru Tegh Bahadur, the ninth Guru. SaaDho rachnaa raam banaa-ee — friends, the One made this whole creation. Rachnaa means creation, something beautifully made.
The key word is achraj, wonder or amazement. The teaching is not gloomy. It is amazed. Ik binsai ik asthir maanai — one person passes away, and another thinks he will stay forever. It is like watching the leaves fall from a tree and still being sure your own leaf will stay green. Each of us tends to live as if we were the one exception to change. That is the deepest surprise of all.
Guru Tegh Bahadur's songs in Raag Gauree, a musical mood of its own, are calm and thoughtful. They gently turn the mind back toward what is real.
What is something everyone knows is true but almost everyone lives as if it weren't?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI