The Wisest Request: Let Me Never Forget You

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

This Rahao reverses the diagnosis of an earlier shabad. In Shabad 13 we learned dukh tade jaa visar jaavai — suffering comes when forgetting comes. Here the seeker, having understood that, makes her central prayer: visar naahee — "let me not forget." The whole shabad is built around this one request, and the request itself is humble and wise: she does not ask for things; she asks for the capacity to keep remembering the One who gives all things.

Notice the dependence in kar kirpaa bhagtan sang raate — "by your kirpaa (grace), [let me be] raate (dyed, colored) in the company of your bhagat (devotees)." Even the love she wants is not something she can generate; she asks the One to dye her in it through grace, among the devotees. This is the permanent rang again — the color of divine love that holds fast — and it comes through kirpaa and sang (grace and company), never through self-effort.

The final line names what she wants as daan — a gift: ehu daan mohi karnaa — "grant me this gift." And the gift is simply dinas rain jiu tudh dhiaaee — "that day and night, I may remember you." Think about how unusual this is. Of all things one could beg from an all-giving source, she begs for the gift of not forgetting the giver. This is the deepest wisdom of gratitude: the greatest gift is not any particular blessing, but the awareness that keeps you connected to the source of all blessings. The Rahao sets the shabad's whole movement — it will list the countless gifts received, and return, at the end, to this single request: let me never forget the one who gave them.