"O my mind, place your hope in the One who holds the world -- that hope holds you; every other slips away."
The Arc
Where do you put your hope? On the test score, the team pick, the friend who always texts back? Those matter. They also move and change, and none of them can carry the whole weight. Put your deepest hope in the One, who holds the whole world and lives in everyone. The One sees every bit of effort you make. Not a crumb of it is wasted, not even one sesame seed's worth. Keep loving your family and friends fully. The One who carries you carries them too. Even your hoping comes from the One. One glimpse of the One fills you all the way up. At the centre, the Rahao: O my mind, place your hope in the One who holds the world.
Key Vocabulary
aas / aasaa -- hope, expectation. The spine of the whole shabad.
jagdees, gusaa-ee -- names for the One as Lord and keeper of the world.
maa-i-aa (Maya) -- the visible, shifting world of things; not evil, but not a foundation.
kutamb -- family; here, the attachment that tempts us to rest our whole hope on people.
bhaa-o doojaa -- "the love of duality," the sense of being separate from the One.
ghaali-aa ... ik til na gavaa-ee -- "not a sesame-seed of effort is lost."
darshan / triptaa-ee -- the sight of the One / the contentment it brings.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad is a gentle re-ordering of the heart's attachments, not a rejection of them. It never says stop loving your family or your friends; it asks only where the ground of your hope rests. That distinction -- love people fully, but do not make finite things carry an infinite weight -- runs throughout Gurbani. The closing move, that hope and desire are all Yours, echoes the Japji vision of Hukam, the flow of existence: even our wanting is part of the current, not a private possession. And the resolution in darshan rather than acquisition ties this shabad to the recurring Sikh insight that fulfillment is a matter of seeing clearly, not of getting more.
For Raag Gond
This composition opens Raag Gond -- the first shabad of the raag, which is why the Shabad numbering restarts at 1 here even though it sits inside the Bilaaval section (it is the bridge-opener into the next raag). Gond is a warm, calling raag, and Guru Ram Das sets its keynote with a tender, repeated address to mayray man -- "O my mind" -- coaxing rather than commanding. The raag begins here on the theme of rightly-placed hope.
Translation Notes
The refrain: the rahau stands on its own as the second verse; the first verse carries the opening Mool Mantar, the Raag Gond Chaupade Mehl 4 Ghar 1 heading, and verse ||1||.
Gentle rendering: the literal "your life will be wasted and lost" (second verse) is rendered as "or I lose my way"; "what can these poor creatures do" (bapurhay) is rendered as a gentle statement that the power simply isn't theirs to give.
Family honored: the shabad's own turn -- the One "saves your whole family as well" -- keeps the teaching about re-ordering love, never renouncing it.
Self-address: Nanak's "servant" framing is carried as first-person humility ("my heart").
Hukumnama
Subject: Put your hope in the One who holds the world Preview: countless fruits, a sesame seed of effort, glittering things, a family carried across, one glimpse.
Today: Where do you put your hope? On the test score, the team pick, the friend who always texts back? Those matter. They also move and change, and none of them can carry the whole weight. Put your deepest hope in the One, who holds the whole world and lives in everyone. The One sees every bit of effort you make. Not a crumb of it is wasted, not even one sesame seed's worth. Keep loving your family and friends fully. The One who carries you carries them too. Even your hoping comes from the One. One glimpse of the One fills you all the way up.
Put your hope in the One who holds the world, and that hope holds you.
For today: Write down one thing you are hoping for, and quietly hand it to the One before you sleep.
"O my mind, place your hope in the One who holds the world -- that hope holds you; every other slips away."
The Arc
Where do you put your hope? On the test score, the team pick, the friend who always texts back? Those matter. They also move and change, and none of them can carry the whole weight. Put your deepest hope in the One, who holds the whole world and lives in everyone. The One sees every bit of effort you make. Not a crumb of it is wasted, not even one sesame seed's worth. Keep loving your family and friends fully. The One who carries you carries them too. Even your hoping comes from the One. One glimpse of the One fills you all the way up. At the centre, the Rahao: O my mind, place your hope in the One who holds the world.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad is a gentle re-ordering of the heart's attachments, not a rejection of them. It never says stop loving your family or your friends; it asks only where the ground of your hope rests. That distinction -- love people fully, but do not make finite things carry an infinite weight -- runs throughout Gurbani. The closing move, that hope and desire are all Yours, echoes the Japji vision of Hukam, the flow of existence: even our wanting is part of the current, not a private possession. And the resolution in darshan rather than acquisition ties this shabad to the recurring Sikh insight that fulfillment is a matter of seeing clearly, not of getting more.
For Raag Gond
This composition opens Raag Gond -- the first shabad of the raag, which is why the Shabad numbering restarts at 1 here even though it sits inside the Bilaaval section (it is the bridge-opener into the next raag). Gond is a warm, calling raag, and Guru Ram Das sets its keynote with a tender, repeated address to mayray man -- "O my mind" -- coaxing rather than commanding. The raag begins here on the theme of rightly-placed hope.
Translation Notes
Hukumnama
Subject: Put your hope in the One who holds the world Preview: countless fruits, a sesame seed of effort, glittering things, a family carried across, one glimpse.
Today: Where do you put your hope? On the test score, the team pick, the friend who always texts back? Those matter. They also move and change, and none of them can carry the whole weight. Put your deepest hope in the One, who holds the whole world and lives in everyone. The One sees every bit of effort you make. Not a crumb of it is wasted, not even one sesame seed's worth. Keep loving your family and friends fully. The One who carries you carries them too. Even your hoping comes from the One. One glimpse of the One fills you all the way up.
Put your hope in the One who holds the world, and that hope holds you.
For today: Write down one thing you are hoping for, and quietly hand it to the One before you sleep.