Ill-will tangles the one who carries it — and even that knot can be undone.
The Arc
One of Guru Arjan's slanderer shabads. It opens (Pauri0) resting in Hukam, the flow of existence. The middle names what runs a life aground — clinging to what can't be kept, tearing others down, saying one thing and doing another — treating ill-will as a sickness of the heart. The close (Pauri4) is pure redemption: the same One who made every good heart holds the beloved close, and reaches openly for the speaker too.
Key Vocabulary
Jo tis bhaavai so thee-aa — whatever pleases the One happens (Hukam). Nindaa — slander, running others down. Asaadh rog — literally an incurable disease, rendered here as a sickness that can heal. Kanth laa-ay raakhay — the One hugs the beloved close.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The arc is the project's signature move with hard material: the enduring teaching (cruelty harms the one who carries it) is kept, while the frightening images are set down, and the whole is bent toward hope by the redemptive close.
For Raag Raamkalee
Raamkalee can hold sober self-examination as well as joy; this shabad uses both, ending in the raag's warmer register.
Translation Notes
Heaviest voice-care of the batch. Pauri2's 'womb of reincarnation' and 'Messenger of Death,' and Pauri3's 'incurable disease' and 'body wasting away,' are dropped or bent to hope per the wellbeing rules; 'spouse' is rendered as family (non-gendered); ego and ill-will are framed as illnesses to be healed, never verdicts.
Ill-will tangles the one who carries it — and even that knot can be undone.
The Arc
One of Guru Arjan's slanderer shabads. It opens (Pauri0) resting in Hukam, the flow of existence. The middle names what runs a life aground — clinging to what can't be kept, tearing others down, saying one thing and doing another — treating ill-will as a sickness of the heart. The close (Pauri4) is pure redemption: the same One who made every good heart holds the beloved close, and reaches openly for the speaker too.
Key Vocabulary
Jo tis bhaavai so thee-aa — whatever pleases the One happens (Hukam). Nindaa — slander, running others down. Asaadh rog — literally an incurable disease, rendered here as a sickness that can heal. Kanth laa-ay raakhay — the One hugs the beloved close.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The arc is the project's signature move with hard material: the enduring teaching (cruelty harms the one who carries it) is kept, while the frightening images are set down, and the whole is bent toward hope by the redemptive close.
For Raag Raamkalee
Raamkalee can hold sober self-examination as well as joy; this shabad uses both, ending in the raag's warmer register.
Translation Notes
Heaviest voice-care of the batch. Pauri2's 'womb of reincarnation' and 'Messenger of Death,' and Pauri3's 'incurable disease' and 'body wasting away,' are dropped or bent to hope per the wellbeing rules; 'spouse' is rendered as family (non-gendered); ego and ill-will are framed as illnesses to be healed, never verdicts.
Last updated: 2026-07-09