The deer, the fisherman, the goldsmith — each lost in one thing; so let my whole attention rest on the One, whom I then see everywhere.
The Arc
A shabad about the power of undivided attention, ending in one of Gurbani's great one-in-all lines.
P0 the deer caught by the hunter's lure-sound — attention so total it fills a whole creature.
The Rahau (P1) turns the mirror: this is how I will watch for the One, and never turn away.
P2 the fisherman and the goldsmith, each swallowed by their craft.
P3 the person locked on what they crave, the gambler on the dice.
P4 the resolution: wherever I look, I see the One — jah jah daykh-a-u tah tah raamaa.
Key Vocabulary
naad — the lure-sound that captures the deer.
hayra-o / hayrai — to gaze upon, to fix the eyes.
chit anat na fera-o — I will not turn my mind elsewhere.
jah jah ... tah tah raamaa — wherever, there — the One in all.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad teaches by borrowing the sheer force of ordinary human focus — craft, craving, chance — and redirecting it. The payoff is not narrowing but widening: single-pointed devotion opens into seeing the One everywhere. This is the block's clearest statement of the One diffused in all, kin to philosophy.md on Ik Onkar as the only reality.
For Raag Gond
Gond carries the building repetition of the examples and lands the turn into all-pervading vision with warmth rather than force.
Translation Notes
Age-appropriate rendering of craving imagery: the P3 image of desire for another's spouse is carried as a person whose whole mind is locked on what they crave — the point being the completeness of attention, not the object. Kept non-explicit for a 10- and 13-year-old audience; the gambler kept as-is.
One-in-all foregrounded: P4 rendered at full strength as the landmark it is.
The deer, the fisherman, the goldsmith — each lost in one thing; so let my whole attention rest on the One, whom I then see everywhere.
The Arc
A shabad about the power of undivided attention, ending in one of Gurbani's great one-in-all lines.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad teaches by borrowing the sheer force of ordinary human focus — craft, craving, chance — and redirecting it. The payoff is not narrowing but widening: single-pointed devotion opens into seeing the One everywhere. This is the block's clearest statement of the One diffused in all, kin to philosophy.md on Ik Onkar as the only reality.
For Raag Gond
Gond carries the building repetition of the examples and lands the turn into all-pervading vision with warmth rather than force.
Translation Notes
Last updated: 2026-07-09