Light a lamp inside you that no water and no wind can put out, and it will not matter what family you were born into; whoever lights it is free.
The Arc
One sustained image, the lamp of awareness, carried through the whole hymn and opened at the end to every human being.
Verse 1 (P0): gather your attention, make your life a raft; keep the fire of wanting gentle, and a steady lamp burns day and night.
The Rahau (P1): float such a lamp on water; it brings complete understanding.
Verse 2 (P2): understanding is good clay; shape the lamp on the wheel of good deeds; it stays with you here and onward.
Verse 3 (P3): when grace opens you, the lamp is lit within, unquenchable, and carries you across.
Verse 4 (P4): no wind shakes it; by its light you see the Divine seat; whatever your rank, whoever lights it is free.
Key Vocabulary
tulhaa — a raft.
deevaa — the lamp of awareness.
hachhee mitee — good clay, meaning right understanding.
chak — the potter's wheel of good deeds.
nadar — the grace-glance, always available.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The lamp is Guru Nanak's counter-image to the yogis' external fires and lamps: this one burns inwardly, is shaped by good living, and belongs to no caste or order. Its unquenchability (P3) echoes the lotus and ghee-coated paper of the earlier hymns, engaged yet unspoiled.
For Raag Raamkalee
Raamkalee's yogis lit ritual fires and floated lamps on the Ganges; Guru Nanak answers with a lamp of awareness that floats on any water and is open to every person, dissolving the very caste order the ritual world assumed.
Translation Notes
Caste leveled (P4): the four varnas (khatree, braahman, sood, vais) rendered as "whatever family or rank," with equality foregrounded; anyone who lights the lamp is free.
Desire not demonized (P0): the bhaahi (fire of desire) is kept gentle and in check, not violently destroyed.
Grace framed rightly (P3):nadar rendered as a light always available for the opening, received not earned.
Light a lamp inside you that no water and no wind can put out, and it will not matter what family you were born into; whoever lights it is free.
The Arc
One sustained image, the lamp of awareness, carried through the whole hymn and opened at the end to every human being.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The lamp is Guru Nanak's counter-image to the yogis' external fires and lamps: this one burns inwardly, is shaped by good living, and belongs to no caste or order. Its unquenchability (P3) echoes the lotus and ghee-coated paper of the earlier hymns, engaged yet unspoiled.
For Raag Raamkalee
Raamkalee's yogis lit ritual fires and floated lamps on the Ganges; Guru Nanak answers with a lamp of awareness that floats on any water and is open to every person, dissolving the very caste order the ritual world assumed.
Translation Notes
Last updated: 2026-07-09