An animal's life serves in a dozen ways — so wake now, and let a human life give something too.
The Arc
A wake-up shabad. P0 (verse 1) jolts: even an animal's life ends up serving many uses, so how sad a human life that gives nothing. P1 (rahau) answers with humility — I cannot see the whole course of my own actions. P2 turns the body's impermanence into a compass toward what lasts. P3 urges waking now, rather than waiting for a hard blow to do it.
Key Vocabulary
naroo / pasoo — a person / an animal
karam kee gat — the course, the state, of one's actions
jaagai — wakes up
jam kaa dand — (literally) the club of the Messenger of Death; here softened to 'a hard, sudden knock'
Themes and Cross-Connections
The 'wake up now' urgency links to the project's reading of Suniai and of suffering as teacher: don't wait for a shock to start living awake. The humility of 'what do I know of my own karma' echoes Japji's Hukam — we live inside a flow we can't fully see, so we choose well in the present.
For Raag Gond
Gond's warmth keeps this from being grim; the raag lets a sharp reminder land as care rather than fear.
Translation Notes
Rahau placement: standalone P1; P0 = verse 1.
Wellbeing (significant): the literal P2 pictures the burning of bones and hair at cremation, and P3 has the sleeper woken by Death's club. Both frightening figures are set aside; the teachings (the body is on loan; wake before a hard blow forces you) are kept and bent toward hope.
The opening animal/human contrast is rendered as a call to a giving life, not as an insult to the reader.
An animal's life serves in a dozen ways — so wake now, and let a human life give something too.
The Arc
A wake-up shabad. P0 (verse 1) jolts: even an animal's life ends up serving many uses, so how sad a human life that gives nothing. P1 (rahau) answers with humility — I cannot see the whole course of my own actions. P2 turns the body's impermanence into a compass toward what lasts. P3 urges waking now, rather than waiting for a hard blow to do it.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The 'wake up now' urgency links to the project's reading of Suniai and of suffering as teacher: don't wait for a shock to start living awake. The humility of 'what do I know of my own karma' echoes Japji's Hukam — we live inside a flow we can't fully see, so we choose well in the present.
For Raag Gond
Gond's warmth keeps this from being grim; the raag lets a sharp reminder land as care rather than fear.
Translation Notes
Last updated: 2026-07-09