White feathers are easy; truly seeing the One is the thing.
The Arc
A four-verse shabad with no rahau. It addresses a white water-bird — graceful, well-spoken, but has it truly seen the One? The answer follows: I rise only by Your power and see You everywhere; You gave the body its wings and its thirst to fly, and Your grace turns that thirst to peace; body and wings are borrowed from air, water and fire, but by grace the truest self settles into what is real.
Key Vocabulary
baagaa — the white water-bird; fine appearance without inner seeing.
saahib sammrith — the all-powerful One, the source of every rising.
khanbh — wings; the body's given power and its restless thirst.
sach samaavai — the truest self merged in the Real.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The soaring, thirsting bird is kin to Malaar's rainbird (chaatrik) longing. The everywhere-present One echoes the raag's picture of grace fallen on all the earth.
For Raag Malaar
The thirsting bird belongs to the rain raag: a longing to soar that only grace can settle into peace.
Translation Notes
This shabad has no rahau/Pause line — it is four verses only. The white water-bird image is rendered gently as a question about real seeing versus fine appearance, never as condemnation. O sister and O brother are kept as the text's direct address.
White feathers are easy; truly seeing the One is the thing.
The Arc
A four-verse shabad with no rahau. It addresses a white water-bird — graceful, well-spoken, but has it truly seen the One? The answer follows: I rise only by Your power and see You everywhere; You gave the body its wings and its thirst to fly, and Your grace turns that thirst to peace; body and wings are borrowed from air, water and fire, but by grace the truest self settles into what is real.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The soaring, thirsting bird is kin to Malaar's rainbird (chaatrik) longing. The everywhere-present One echoes the raag's picture of grace fallen on all the earth.
For Raag Malaar
The thirsting bird belongs to the rain raag: a longing to soar that only grace can settle into peace.
Translation Notes
This shabad has no rahau/Pause line — it is four verses only. The white water-bird image is rendered gently as a question about real seeing versus fine appearance, never as condemnation. O sister and O brother are kept as the text's direct address.