Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In this life and beyond it, you are the one watching over us.
Even before we were born — curled in the dark of the womb — you were already feeding and protecting us. And the burning fever of Maya, all that grabbing and craving, can't catch fire in a heart that's soaked in your love. Such a heart just keeps singing.
This verse stretches the rescue of the last verse across a whole life — and even before life began. The One cared for you before you could do anything to earn it.
Aithai othai too hai rakhvaalaa — here and hereafter, You are the Protector. Rakhvaalaa means the one who keeps you safe. This care isn't now-and-then. It covers this life and whatever comes after. Then Guru Arjan reaches back to each person's very beginning: maat garabh meh tum hee paalaa — in the mother's womb, You Yourself cared for us.
This is one of the tenderest pictures in the raag. Before you could do anything to deserve it — before you had a name, or a face anyone could see — you were being cared for and fed. The same care that, in a nearby song, prepares food before a creature even arrives, looks after the unborn baby here. The One's care comes before you. It was holding you before you knew anything, and it has never stopped. Like a parent who set up the crib long before the baby came home.
The verse closes with a picture of being safe from fire: maa-i-aa agan na pohai tin ka-o — the fire of Maya does not touch them. Maya here is the grabbing, craving, feverish pull of the world, pictured as agan, fire. But a heart soaked through with the One's love is like a wet cloth. The fire finds nothing dry to catch. Rang ratay gun gaavani-aa — dyed in love, they sing Your praises. The craving that burns up so many lives can't light where love has soaked the soul. And the sign of such a heart is the same as always in these songs: it sings.
Does it change anything to imagine you were already being cared for before you could do a single thing to deserve it?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI