Raag Maaroo
Commentary

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

What we grip will change and pass; hold the Name that stays.

The Arc

Everything gripped tightly — even beloved people and pleasures — will change and pass; the Pause answers by calling the mind to take in the Name daily, so the world's heat cannot scorch it and peace fills mind and body. Like a tree's shade or wind-blown clouds our supports vanish; love for the One, rooted in good company, is the one thing that finally serves.

Key Vocabulary

  • Birakh chhaaiaa — a tree's shade — here, then gone
  • Agan saagar — the ocean of fire, rendered as the world's heat
  • Darirh — implant, make firm

Themes and Cross-Connections

The passing-shade image belongs to the raag's steady meditation on impermanence, always turned toward what endures rather than toward dread.

For Raag Maaroo

Impermanence framed as a reason to hold the lasting thing now.

Translation Notes

"Reduced to dust" and "torn apart" are softened into the gentler truth that all we grip changes and passes — memento-mori turned toward treasuring what stays. The literal's "ocean of fire" is rendered as the world's heat, which cannot scorch a peaceful heart.

Last updated: 2026-07-09

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