What you gain by hurting others cannot be kept — and an unkind word wounds the one who throws it most.
The Arc
The rahau sees us gulping down what looks good but quietly harms, wearing ourselves out. The middle verse sounds a sharp justice-note — gain built on making the poor suffer goes with us not at all, and the repeated regret is the heart asking for change. The close carries the verse's harsh imagery into its true moral core: tearing others down wounds our own heart most, so kindness protects us most of all.
Key Vocabulary
bisoo — poison; the things that look good but harm us.
anaath ranjan — making the helpless and poor suffer.
pachhutaavahi — repeated regret; the honest signal that change is due.
nindak — the one who tears others down.
kilbikh — the mistakes we keep repeating.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The care-for-the-poor note foregrounds the tradition's justice: ill-gotten gain is both wrong and worthless. The teaching that slander rebounds onto the speaker connects to the whole batch's inward turn — outward harm, like outward chasing, comes back to the one who sends it.
For Raag Saarang
Beneath Saarang's longing runs a moral clarity: the heart that reaches for the One is also the heart that stops feeding on others. Longing and kindness turn out to be the same movement.
Translation Notes
The verse's most violent images — the Messenger of Death slaughtering the slanderer, and "he cuts himself with his own dagger" — are set aside entirely; the self-harm picture is replaced by its enduring meaning, that unkindness wounds its own author. andhay (blind) is softened to "without really looking," a state rather than an insult.
What you gain by hurting others cannot be kept — and an unkind word wounds the one who throws it most.
The Arc
The rahau sees us gulping down what looks good but quietly harms, wearing ourselves out. The middle verse sounds a sharp justice-note — gain built on making the poor suffer goes with us not at all, and the repeated regret is the heart asking for change. The close carries the verse's harsh imagery into its true moral core: tearing others down wounds our own heart most, so kindness protects us most of all.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The care-for-the-poor note foregrounds the tradition's justice: ill-gotten gain is both wrong and worthless. The teaching that slander rebounds onto the speaker connects to the whole batch's inward turn — outward harm, like outward chasing, comes back to the one who sends it.
For Raag Saarang
Beneath Saarang's longing runs a moral clarity: the heart that reaches for the One is also the heart that stops feeding on others. Longing and kindness turn out to be the same movement.
Translation Notes
The verse's most violent images — the Messenger of Death slaughtering the slanderer, and "he cuts himself with his own dagger" — are set aside entirely; the self-harm picture is replaced by its enduring meaning, that unkindness wounds its own author. andhay (blind) is softened to "without really looking," a state rather than an insult.