Raag Malaar
Commentary

Raag Malaar, Chaupade, Mehl 3 (Guru Amar Das)

The mind flows into the One like a stream into the sea.

The Arc

Praise for the Giver of peace and the supreme state it brings; hold lightly what you cannot keep and hold the Name close; the teaching is the one true Giver of the Name, filling the deepest hunger; the Word pierces the heart and the one turned toward it speaks the unspeakable; the wandering settles as the mind melts into the One and ego dissolves; only the One dwells within, and the sweet Name comes to the hearts meant to receive it.

Key Vocabulary

  • sukh-daataa — the Giver of peace, pointing straight to the One.
  • koorh kutamb — clinging attachments; loosened, not loved ones rejected.
  • akath kahaanee — the unspoken story; speaking what cannot be spoken.
  • man hee tay man mili-aa — the mind merging into the Mind, stream into sea.

Themes and Cross-Connections

The mind-into-Mind image rhymes with the tradition's recurring wave-and-ocean and stream-and-sea pictures of union. Speaking the unspoken (akath) marks the limit of language before the One.

For Raag Malaar

The longing heart arriving home: the stream that has found the sea it was always flowing toward.

Translation Notes

koorh kutamb (false family) is rendered as loosening the grip of clinging, not rejecting loved ones; remember that you will have to leave is rendered gently as holding lightly what cannot be kept.

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