The One gave you your very life, breath, and every good thing — and is also your oldest, closest friend.
The Arc
Verse 1 (P0): the One shaped your soul and breath, set its Light in you, and gave you everything — why turn away?
The Rahau (P1): give yourself to the boundless One; through the teaching the formless One becomes clear.
Verse 2 (P2): the One begins and ends the whole play in an instant, too vast to measure.
Verse 3 (P3): the unchanging One's storehouse overflows with the Name and supports every heart.
Verse 4 (P4): the Name is the True Being; the One is your friend from earliest childhood.
Key Vocabulary
jee-a paraan — soul and breath of life.
maatee meh jot — Light set within the dust of the body.
paarbarahm / niranjan dayv — the boundless, immaculate, formless One.
laal naam — the rubies of the Name filling the storehouse.
baal sakhaa-ee — a friend/playmate from earliest childhood.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad moves from vastness to intimacy in a single sweep: the One who makes and unmakes worlds in an instant is the same One who has been your playmate since before you could remember. That collapse of distance — the infinite made near — is the heart of Guru Arjan's tenderness, and of the Sikh sense of Naam as a living presence, not a distant power.
For Raag Gond
Ghar 2 in Gond; the raag's warmth carries the closing image of the One as childhood friend especially well — a note of belonging rather than awe alone.
Translation Notes
'Fool' softened (P0): the literal moorhay is rendered as a gentle wondering ('why would I ever turn away'), astonishment rather than insult.
The One gave you your very life, breath, and every good thing — and is also your oldest, closest friend.
The Arc
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The shabad moves from vastness to intimacy in a single sweep: the One who makes and unmakes worlds in an instant is the same One who has been your playmate since before you could remember. That collapse of distance — the infinite made near — is the heart of Guru Arjan's tenderness, and of the Sikh sense of Naam as a living presence, not a distant power.
For Raag Gond
Ghar 2 in Gond; the raag's warmth carries the closing image of the One as childhood friend especially well — a note of belonging rather than awe alone.
Translation Notes
Last updated: 2026-07-09