Raag Maaroo
Commentary

Raag Maaroo, Chau-Padas, Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan)

I stopped searching outside, and found the jewel already home.

The Arc

The shabad opens with the great turn inward: the Teacher shows that the One is not somewhere far off but within the home of the heart. From there it moves through the priceless jewel that can only be received (never bought), the unstruck music that rises when the mind is quiet, the rough mind slowly shaped into something good, and a close in sahaj — natural ease — where doubt is gone and one is at home in the One's presence.

Key Vocabulary

  • Ghar hee maahi — within the home of the heart — the One found where we already are
  • Maanak / amol — the jewel, beyond price — received as grace, never purchased
  • Anhad shabad / dasam duaar — the unstruck sound, the tenth gate — inner stillness rendered as a quiet music and sweetness
  • Aghar gharyo — the unshapeable shaped — the mind mastered
  • Sahaj — natural ease, effortless poise

Themes and Cross-Connections

The "stopped searching outside" opening rhymes with the musk-deer image elsewhere in the tradition (the good is within; we search without). Aghar gharyo is Maaroo's inner battle in miniature: the only war worth winning is with one's own restlessness.

For Raag Maaroo

Maaroo is the raag of the battlefield and of mortality. Here Guru Arjan turns the fight fully inward — no enemy but the untamed mind, no victory but ease.

Last updated: 2026-07-09

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