Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Sometimes a longing rises in the heart — a missing so deep you ache to see the One again. How can I see You, great Giver? My truest friend and companion is the One, the teacher who shapes everything.
You are the One, and I feel far from You and lonely — how do we meet again? Let my hands serve You and my head rest at Your feet; my whole heart waits, quietly, just to glimpse You.
With every breath, I remember You — not for a single moment do I let You slip from mind, day or night.
Like a rainbird thirsting for one drop of rain, I long to meet You, great Giver.
This is Guru Arjan's own chhant, opening with bairaag — a beautiful, aching longing for the divine. It is important to name what this feeling is: not depression to be fixed, but the soul's homesickness for its source, a longing that is itself a kind of love. The recurring image is the saaring / rainbird (chaatrik), which in Indian poetry drinks only falling raindrops and cries for them — a symbol of single-hearted yearning. The devotion described is saas saas — "with every breath," continuous remembrance (simran). Nothing frightening here; the whole pauri is tender ache turned toward reunion, and the chhant will move steadily from this longing to the joy of meeting.
Have you ever missed someone so much that the missing itself felt like a kind of love?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI