Raag Gond
Commentary

Raag Gond, Chaupada, Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan)

The Name is cool, clear water — it rinses the heart the way water rinses dust.

The Arc

A Naaraa-in anaphora — nearly every line opens with the One's name, like a name softly repeated.

  • P0 (rahau) — the Name is cool, clear water that rinses old mistakes away.
  • P1 (v1) — the One dwells in all and lights every heart; you stay in the light.
  • P2 (v2) — lean on the One and the grip of illusion loosens.
  • P3 (v3) — the One forgives again and again; mother and father to the devoted.
  • P4 (v4) — what can't be grasped by reaching is found in good company.

Key Vocabulary

neer — water; the Name as cooling, cleansing, life-giving. Naaraa-in — the One; repeated at the head of nearly every line. adhaar / ot — support / shelter; what the mind leans on and holds. maa-ee baap — mother and father; the completeness of the One's care. basat agochar — 'the object beyond the senses'; found through the teaching.

Themes and Cross-Connections

The repetition of Naaraa-in is itself the teaching — a shabad shaped like simran, the name held until it fills the room. The water-image (Name as neer) makes cleansing gentle: not scrubbing away guilt but rinsing like water over dust. The mother-and-father line reaches for both parents at once to say the One's care lacks nothing.

For Raag Gond

Gond's medicine becomes water here — the raag as something cool poured over a hot, tired mind.

Translation Notes

  • Wellbeing softening: P1's narak na jaahi ('does not go to hell') rendered as 'stays in the light, never lost to the dark'; P2's messenger-of-death 'fleeing' rendered as the fear of death running off; P2's 'breaks the teeth of Maya the witch' reframed as 'the grip of illusion loosens,' removing the frightening figure.

Last updated: 2026-07-09

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