Listen, friend: the real hermit is not the one who leaves home but the one who masters the pulls inside and rests, awake, in the deep stillness of the One.
The Arc
Addressed to Machhindra, this hymn re-reads the whole idea of the hermit: renunciation, posture, trance, and initiation are all relocated inward.
Verse 1 (P0): master the five passions and stay steady; such yoga uplifts you and all connected to you.
The Rahau (P1): the true hermit is whoever attains this understanding, absorbed in still peace.
Verse 2 (P2): he begs for love, lives in reverence, is filled by contentment, becomes stillness itself.
Verse 3 (P3): the mark of the real seeker is living among hopes yet ungrasping.
Verse 4 (P4): when teacher and student meet, the teaching becomes food and medicine, holding all wisdom.
Key Vocabulary
Machhindra — Matsyendranath, founding master of the Nath yogis.
avadhoot — the wandering hermit.
sunn samaadh — absorption in the deep stillness.
taarhee — deep trance; aasan — the yogic posture.
chhia darsan — the six classical schools of philosophy.
Themes and Cross-Connections
Contentment as amulai (priceless) is the hymn's quiet centre: the seeker who begs only for love and holds hope loosely already has the one treasure worth having. The Guru-disciple bond (P4) is named as the living channel through which this passes.
For Raag Raamkalee
This is the second of Guru Nanak's named yogi-dialogues in Raamkalee, spoken to the Naths' founder Machhindra. Like the horn-and-bowl hymn before it, it honors the yogic path by turning each of its outer marks into an inner realization.
Translation Notes
Named dialogue handled (P0, P3): the address to Machhindra is voiced as "listen, friend," keeping the child inside the teaching while preserving the text's direct address, rather than "Guru Nanak says."
Yogic terms reinterpreted:avadhoot (hermit), sunn samaadh (still absorption), aasan (posture), taarhee (trance) all rendered as inner stillness and attention, not bodily technique.
bhai softened (P2): "fear of God" rendered as reverence and awe, not terror.
Other systems honored (P4):chhia darsan (the six darshanas) rendered as "the wisdom all the great schools reach for," respectful of other traditions.
Listen, friend: the real hermit is not the one who leaves home but the one who masters the pulls inside and rests, awake, in the deep stillness of the One.
The Arc
Addressed to Machhindra, this hymn re-reads the whole idea of the hermit: renunciation, posture, trance, and initiation are all relocated inward.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
Contentment as amulai (priceless) is the hymn's quiet centre: the seeker who begs only for love and holds hope loosely already has the one treasure worth having. The Guru-disciple bond (P4) is named as the living channel through which this passes.
For Raag Raamkalee
This is the second of Guru Nanak's named yogi-dialogues in Raamkalee, spoken to the Naths' founder Machhindra. Like the horn-and-bowl hymn before it, it honors the yogic path by turning each of its outer marks into an inner realization.
Translation Notes
Last updated: 2026-07-09