Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Death's noose and its heavy tangles are gone, and the fear of death with them.
I have come to the shelter of the merciful One, the ender of pain, holding tight to the support of its feet.
The "noose of Death" and "the fear of death" vanish together — and note that it is the fear as much as the fact that is addressed. What torments the living is not death itself but the dread of it, the shadow over everything. Guru Arjan says that dread "vanishes" for the one who takes shelter, holding "tight to the Support of His feet." The grip on the One replaces the grip of fear. This is the raag's recurring liberation: not that the devotee won't die, but that death loses its power to haunt, because the soul has found something to hold that is stronger than what it feared to lose.
How much of the fear of losing something is worse than the loss itself? What might be strong enough to hold onto instead of the fear?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI