A good heart carries no revenge — it wishes well even to the one who wishes it ill.
The Arc
The one Ashtapadee (eight-versed hymn) of Guru Arjan's Gond set, on shelter and the self-undoing of ill-will.
P0 (v1) — bow to the perfect Guide who knows every heart from within.
P1 (rahau) — the Guide who holds the world is the One who keeps you safe.
P2 (v2) — even the mighty are set at ease; cruelty collapses under its own weight.
P3 (v3) — gladness fills the good; faces grow bright; ill-will finds no place to stand.
P4 (v4) — the care-free One dissolves every fear.
P5 (v5) — a heart full of the One fears nothing, not even death.
P6 (v6) — nirvair: a good heart holds no revenge, wishing well even to those who wish it ill.
P7 (v7) — as you plant, so you harvest; pride has no root to stand on.
P8 (v8) — the Guide is the support of the unsupported; remembering keeps a life whole.
Key Vocabulary
Ashtapadee — an eight-versed hymn (here spread across nine files: P0 verse, P1 rahau, P2-P8 the eight verses). bayparvaah — care-free; the One's freedom from anxiety, which dissolves ours. nirvair — without enmity; wishing well even to those who wish ill. jaisaa karay so taisaa paa-ay — 'as you plant, so you harvest.' needhri-aa ... dhar — the support of the unsupported. paij savaaree — 'honor kept'; a life held whole.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The hymn's moral center is P6's nirvair — the good heart carries no vengeance, a word drawn straight from Sikhi's opening creed and lived out here. The whole 'slander' arc is carried through the ill-will-defeats-itself lens: cruelty collapses under its own weight, ill-will returns empty on its speaker, and pride simply has no root — never a punishment relished, always a natural cost. The keynote bayparvaah (care-free) links the One's steadiness to the fearlessness it gives us.
For Raag Gond
As Gond's sole Ashtapadee in the Guru Arjan set, it stretches the raag's warmth into a longer arc — from bowing, through the self-undoing of ill-will, to nirvair and the shelter of the unsupported.
Translation Notes
File structure: 9 files. P0 = header + mangal + verse ||1||; P1 = rahau; P2-P8 = verses ||2|| through ||8||1||29||. Verse numbers run one behind the pauri file numbers from P2 on.
Wellbeing / ill-will-defeats-itself: P2's 'destroys the villains' and 'illness in slanderers' mouths' rendered as arrogance collapsing under its own weight and ill-will returning empty on its speaker; P5's 'messenger of death does not approach' rendered as 'nothing left to fear, not even death'; P6's 'the slanderer is cast into hell' dropped entirely and rendered as ill-will leaving a person 'hollow and alone' — its natural cost; P7's 'uprooted' rendered as pride having 'no root to stand on.'
nirvair (P6): foregrounded as the hymn's ethical heart, tied to the opening creed of Sikhi.
A good heart carries no revenge — it wishes well even to the one who wishes it ill.
The Arc
The one Ashtapadee (eight-versed hymn) of Guru Arjan's Gond set, on shelter and the self-undoing of ill-will.
Key Vocabulary
Ashtapadee — an eight-versed hymn (here spread across nine files: P0 verse, P1 rahau, P2-P8 the eight verses). bayparvaah — care-free; the One's freedom from anxiety, which dissolves ours. nirvair — without enmity; wishing well even to those who wish ill. jaisaa karay so taisaa paa-ay — 'as you plant, so you harvest.' needhri-aa ... dhar — the support of the unsupported. paij savaaree — 'honor kept'; a life held whole.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The hymn's moral center is P6's nirvair — the good heart carries no vengeance, a word drawn straight from Sikhi's opening creed and lived out here. The whole 'slander' arc is carried through the ill-will-defeats-itself lens: cruelty collapses under its own weight, ill-will returns empty on its speaker, and pride simply has no root — never a punishment relished, always a natural cost. The keynote bayparvaah (care-free) links the One's steadiness to the fearlessness it gives us.
For Raag Gond
As Gond's sole Ashtapadee in the Guru Arjan set, it stretches the raag's warmth into a longer arc — from bowing, through the self-undoing of ill-will, to nirvair and the shelter of the unsupported.
Translation Notes
Last updated: 2026-07-09