The Creator listens and sees, comes and goes, is formless and full of form — and by grace, the heart learns to see all as one.
The Arc
This short shabad has its rahau in Pauri0, with two verses unfolding it.
The Rahau (P0): the One is the Maker of all and the enjoyer of all — the seed line.
Verse 1 (P1): the Creator listens and sees, is unseen and seen, forms and dissolves, touches yet stays detached.
Verse 2 (P2): the Creator speaks and understands, comes and goes, is formless and full of quality — and by grace, one looks on all the same.
Key Vocabulary
kartaa — the Creator/Maker; the drumbeat word of the whole shabad.
adristo / dristo — unseen and seen.
alipto — detached, untouched, like a lotus above water.
nirgun / sargun — beyond quality / full of quality; the two faces of the One.
samdristaa — one who sees with an equal eye.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The chain of opposites is a meditation on how the One is fully within everything yet trapped by nothing — the very balance the Gurmukh learns to live. Crucially, it does not stay abstract: it lands on samdrist, equal vision. To truly feel the One in all is to stop ranking people; Oneness becomes fairness and love in practice.
For Raag Gond
This opens the Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan) section of Gond. Where Guru Ram Das coaxed the mind, Guru Arjan here drums a single word — kartaa — like a heartbeat, well suited to Gond's steady, calling pulse.
Translation Notes
Rahau placement: the rahau sits inside Pauri0 (merged with the shabad's opening line), not in Pauri1; P1 and P2 are the two verses.
samdristaa foregrounded: the closing 'looks upon all the same' is read as the shabad's real fruit — equal vision as the lived form of Oneness.
The Creator listens and sees, comes and goes, is formless and full of form — and by grace, the heart learns to see all as one.
The Arc
This short shabad has its rahau in Pauri0, with two verses unfolding it.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The chain of opposites is a meditation on how the One is fully within everything yet trapped by nothing — the very balance the Gurmukh learns to live. Crucially, it does not stay abstract: it lands on samdrist, equal vision. To truly feel the One in all is to stop ranking people; Oneness becomes fairness and love in practice.
For Raag Gond
This opens the Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan) section of Gond. Where Guru Ram Das coaxed the mind, Guru Arjan here drums a single word — kartaa — like a heartbeat, well suited to Gond's steady, calling pulse.
Translation Notes
Last updated: 2026-07-09