Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The rainbird longs for the rain to fall.
O ocean of mercy, shower your mercy on me, that I may long for loving devotion to the One.
Guru Arjan reaches for one of Gurbani's most beloved images: the papeeha, the rainbird, said to cry out for a single drop of rain and to drink only from the sky. It longs for one thing, and nothing else will do. And the seeker's prayer is exquisitely humble: not "give me devotion" but "give me the longing for devotion" — make me like the rainbird, thirsting for you. He asks for the thirst itself, knowing (as the whole raag knows) that a true longing is already half the arrival. To be given a heart that cries out for the One, like the rainbird for rain, is to be given everything.
Is it a strange and wise thing to ask for a deeper longing rather than the thing itself? Why might the longing matter so much?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI