The teaching is worship, wisdom, refuge, and the boat wide enough to carry everyone across.
The Arc
Verse 1 (P0): the teacher is my worship and my glimpse of the unseen One; I serve at its feet.
The Rahau (P1): without the teaching I have no other place; day and night I keep its name.
Verse 2 (P2): the teaching is my wisdom and my shelter — I have no other.
Verse 3 (P3): the teaching is the boat across the rough sea; its word a lamp in the dark; in its company all cross.
Verse 4 (P4): found by great fortune, its word cannot be erased — the teaching and the One are one light.
Key Vocabulary
gobind / bhagvant / dayv — names for the divine, here poured onto the Guru.
alakh abhay-o — the unseen, unfathomable One.
bohith — a ship; the teaching as the vessel across the sea of life.
bhav — the turbulent world-ocean.
nistaaraa — being carried across, saved.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad heaps every divine name onto the Guru — not to exalt a person, but because the teaching carries the One so fully that it becomes the place where the unseen is met. Its closing collapse of teacher and One into 'a single light' completes the cluster's central claim, and its image of a boat that carries all (sagal nistaaraa) keeps the inclusivity front and center.
For Raag Gond
Gond's warm, calling character suits the boat-image of a teaching wide enough for everyone; the raag gathers rather than divides.
Translation Notes
Messenger-of-Death softened (P3): the literal jam (the figure of death) is rendered as 'the fear of death,' keeping the release without the frightening personage.
The teaching is worship, wisdom, refuge, and the boat wide enough to carry everyone across.
The Arc
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad heaps every divine name onto the Guru — not to exalt a person, but because the teaching carries the One so fully that it becomes the place where the unseen is met. Its closing collapse of teacher and One into 'a single light' completes the cluster's central claim, and its image of a boat that carries all (sagal nistaaraa) keeps the inclusivity front and center.
For Raag Gond
Gond's warm, calling character suits the boat-image of a teaching wide enough for everyone; the raag gathers rather than divides.
Translation Notes
Last updated: 2026-07-09