Everyone has their path — forest and silence, pilgrimage and fasting, learning and rite. I am meek; I simply hold the One.
The Arc
Guru Arjan surveys the whole marketplace of spiritual effort in his time: worldly influence, elaborate worship, yogic cleansing and breath-control, leaving home for the forest, vows of silence, pilgrimage and fasting, pride of noble family, prayer-beads and forehead-marks, miraculous powers, robes and rank, tantric spells, the learned Pandit, the six prescribed rites, a life of careful good conduct. Each verse names these honestly and then returns, unfailingly, to the same quiet refrain: mohi deen — I am meek; I worship, I take shelter, I serve, I seek sanctuary in the One. The rest (rahau) states it plainly: my whole trust is in You; I know no other way. The close: having examined all the paths of every age, without the Name the heart stays asleep — and in the Company of the Holy the restless thirst was finally cooled.
Key Vocabulary
Mohi deen — I am meek; rendered as empty-handedness, the posture of simple trust rather than achievement.
Bharosaa — trust; leaning the whole self on the One (the rahau).
Saadhsang — the Company of the Holy; where the thirst is finally quenched.
Trisnaa... seetlaaiaa — burning thirst cooled; the hymn's resolution.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The genius of the hymn is that it does not attack any path — it simply sets a humble trust beside all of them. This is the Fifth Guru's characteristic move: dignity for the seeker who has nothing to show but love. It connects to 2064 (a parallel survey of how differently people spend their days) and to the whole Raamkalee family's answer to the yogi: not more technique, but the Name and good company.
For Raag Raamkalee
Because Raamkalee is the raag of the questing yogi, this catalogue of disciplines is perfectly at home — and its gentle punchline (empty-handed trust outdoes all the striving) is the raag's recurring teaching.
Translation Notes
Interfaith: the hymn names practices from many traditions — yogic nival and Kundalini breath (P0), renunciation and pilgrimage (P2-3), Vaishnav bells, vows, prayer-beads and tilak marks (P5), tantric tant-mant (P6), the Brahmanical Pandit and the six rites khat karam (P7). All are rendered respectfully as valid paths; the singer's trust is placed beside them, never above them. Chanting and remembrance are never framed negatively.
Caste-leveling (P4): pride of noble lineage (kuleh vadiaaee) is set aside; the One is the only support.
Mohi deen throughout is rendered as empty-handedness, not self-abasement.
Everyone has their path — forest and silence, pilgrimage and fasting, learning and rite. I am meek; I simply hold the One.
The Arc
Guru Arjan surveys the whole marketplace of spiritual effort in his time: worldly influence, elaborate worship, yogic cleansing and breath-control, leaving home for the forest, vows of silence, pilgrimage and fasting, pride of noble family, prayer-beads and forehead-marks, miraculous powers, robes and rank, tantric spells, the learned Pandit, the six prescribed rites, a life of careful good conduct. Each verse names these honestly and then returns, unfailingly, to the same quiet refrain: mohi deen — I am meek; I worship, I take shelter, I serve, I seek sanctuary in the One. The rest (rahau) states it plainly: my whole trust is in You; I know no other way. The close: having examined all the paths of every age, without the Name the heart stays asleep — and in the Company of the Holy the restless thirst was finally cooled.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The genius of the hymn is that it does not attack any path — it simply sets a humble trust beside all of them. This is the Fifth Guru's characteristic move: dignity for the seeker who has nothing to show but love. It connects to 2064 (a parallel survey of how differently people spend their days) and to the whole Raamkalee family's answer to the yogi: not more technique, but the Name and good company.
For Raag Raamkalee
Because Raamkalee is the raag of the questing yogi, this catalogue of disciplines is perfectly at home — and its gentle punchline (empty-handed trust outdoes all the striving) is the raag's recurring teaching.
Translation Notes