No one owns anyone; we are birds who share one tree.
The Arc
Go back before your mother and father, before anyone had a body or had done a single thing. There was no you and no me. So who came from where? Before the sun and the moon, water and air were mixed together. There were no holy books yet, so where did karma come from? People try many practices: steadying the breath, holding the gaze still, wearing beads of tulsi. All of it is received by the Guru's grace. Underneath it all is one deepest truth, and the True Guru helps you see it. At the centre, the Rahao: no one belongs to anyone; we are birds perched together on one tree.
Key Vocabulary
karam — action and karma; here, the doing that seems to divide us into separate selves.
tarvar pankh basayraa — birds perched on a tree; the classic image of impermanence and shared, unowned belonging.
param tat — the supreme essence, the one reality underneath everything.
khaychar, bhoochar — yogic breath and gaze practices, said here to open only through grace.
Themes and Cross-Connections
Non-possession and impermanence, held warmly rather than bleakly; the shared Source beneath every division; and grace over technique. The birds-on-a-tree image gives the raag one of its gentlest pictures of human belonging: we gather for a while, then fly on, and the tree holds us all.
For Raag Raamkalee
Among the Bhagats' shabads near the close of the raag, the birds on one tree become one of the warmest pictures of how people belong to one another. If one Source lies under everyone, every rank between people falls away.
Hukumnama
Subject: No one owns anyone; we share one tree Preview: no mother, no father, no sun, no moon, water and air mixed together, beads of tulsi, birds on one tree
Today: Go back before your mother and father, before anyone had a body or had done a single thing. There was no you and no me. So who came from where? Before the sun and the moon, water and air were mixed together. There were no holy books yet, so where did karma come from? People try many practices: steadying the breath, holding the gaze still, wearing beads of tulsi. All of it is received by the Guru's grace. Underneath it all is one deepest truth, and the True Guru helps you see it.
No one belongs to anyone; we are birds perched together on one tree.
For today: Thank one person who shares your tree right now, at home or at school.
No one owns anyone; we are birds who share one tree.
The Arc
Go back before your mother and father, before anyone had a body or had done a single thing. There was no you and no me. So who came from where? Before the sun and the moon, water and air were mixed together. There were no holy books yet, so where did karma come from? People try many practices: steadying the breath, holding the gaze still, wearing beads of tulsi. All of it is received by the Guru's grace. Underneath it all is one deepest truth, and the True Guru helps you see it. At the centre, the Rahao: no one belongs to anyone; we are birds perched together on one tree.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
Non-possession and impermanence, held warmly rather than bleakly; the shared Source beneath every division; and grace over technique. The birds-on-a-tree image gives the raag one of its gentlest pictures of human belonging: we gather for a while, then fly on, and the tree holds us all.
For Raag Raamkalee
Among the Bhagats' shabads near the close of the raag, the birds on one tree become one of the warmest pictures of how people belong to one another. If one Source lies under everyone, every rank between people falls away.
Hukumnama
Subject: No one owns anyone; we share one tree Preview: no mother, no father, no sun, no moon, water and air mixed together, beads of tulsi, birds on one tree
Today: Go back before your mother and father, before anyone had a body or had done a single thing. There was no you and no me. So who came from where? Before the sun and the moon, water and air were mixed together. There were no holy books yet, so where did karma come from? People try many practices: steadying the breath, holding the gaze still, wearing beads of tulsi. All of it is received by the Guru's grace. Underneath it all is one deepest truth, and the True Guru helps you see it.
No one belongs to anyone; we are birds perched together on one tree.
For today: Thank one person who shares your tree right now, at home or at school.