Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
How do I cross over? How do I find my way home?
No one has quite explained it to me — how to step out of the endless round of restlessness and coming-and-going.
Ravidas asks a plain, honest question: how do I get across?
This is the rahao, the "pause" line. It is the center of the whole song, the line everything else circles around. Paar kaisay paa-ibo ray — how can I reach the far shore? No one has explained it to him.
He wants to be free of aavaa gavan, the coming and going. Many read this as being born again and again. For a child, it can also be the restless wheel of wanting something, getting it, and wanting again. It is like a hamster wheel that never quite gets anywhere.
Ravidas does not pretend to have it all figured out. He simply asks. That honest not-knowing is precious. A true question, asked with your whole heart, is already the start of the answer.
What's a big question you're carrying that you haven't found the full answer to yet?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI