Give gold, recite every sacred book, keep every fast — good things all — yet none of them, alone, is the Name.
The Arc
Across the whole shabad, worthy practices are weighed and found not equal to the Name: gifts of gold and land, purifying the mind; reciting the Vedas and hearing the Puraanas and Shaastras; fasting, prayer, pilgrimage, cleansing techniques, incense and lamps. Each verse returns to the same refrain — stay at the Lotus Feet. The close turns the whole weighing into one simple prayer: Kind One, hear a humble heart; let me see you. Your Name is so sweet.
Key Vocabulary
kanchan dat — donations of gold.
chaar bayd / das asat / khasat — the four Vedas, eighteen Puraanas, six Shaastras.
barat sandh — fasts and prayers.
naam tul na — not equal to the Name.
naam misat — the Name is sweet.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The raag's insistence that inward love outweighs every outward form reaches its clearest statement here, and lands not in dismissal but in a tender, simple asking.
For Raag Saarang
The longing raag says plainly what it longs for — the Name itself, above every practice.
Translation Notes
The catalogue of practices spans traditions (charity, scripture-recitation, fasting, pilgrimage, ascetic cleansing, incense and lamps); the critique is of formalism in any tradition, not of the practices themselves — each is kept honorable while the Name is named as what they cannot substitute for. The interfaith handling is kept evenhanded.
Give gold, recite every sacred book, keep every fast — good things all — yet none of them, alone, is the Name.
The Arc
Across the whole shabad, worthy practices are weighed and found not equal to the Name: gifts of gold and land, purifying the mind; reciting the Vedas and hearing the Puraanas and Shaastras; fasting, prayer, pilgrimage, cleansing techniques, incense and lamps. Each verse returns to the same refrain — stay at the Lotus Feet. The close turns the whole weighing into one simple prayer: Kind One, hear a humble heart; let me see you. Your Name is so sweet.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The raag's insistence that inward love outweighs every outward form reaches its clearest statement here, and lands not in dismissal but in a tender, simple asking.
For Raag Saarang
The longing raag says plainly what it longs for — the Name itself, above every practice.
Translation Notes
The catalogue of practices spans traditions (charity, scripture-recitation, fasting, pilgrimage, ascetic cleansing, incense and lamps); the critique is of formalism in any tradition, not of the practices themselves — each is kept honorable while the Name is named as what they cannot substitute for. The interfaith handling is kept evenhanded.