Love your people fully, but rest your whole self only on the One who stays.
The Arc
This opens Guru Tegh Bahadur's Saarang hymns. The rahau names the One as the only unfailing support, without diminishing the precious bonds of family. Verse one observes that nothing owned goes along when the body is set down. The close names the One as gentle with the small and the quiet loosener of sorrow, and the world, held too tightly, as a night's dream — vivid, then gone.
Key Vocabulary
har bin ko na sahaaee — none is your support but the One.
tan chhootai kachh sang na chaalai — nothing owned travels onward.
deen daiaal — gentle with those who feel small.
dukh bhanjan — the quiet loosener of sorrow.
jagat mithiaa, jio supnaa — the world, held tightly, like a dream.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The world-as-dream is Guru Tegh Bahadur's recurring image across his hymns; it appears three times in this run (2714, 2716) and answers each time with holding life lightly and the One closely.
For Raag Saarang
Guru Tegh Bahadur brings a tender detachment to Saarang: the longing turns from what passes toward the One who stays.
Translation Notes
The naming of mother, father, child, and spouse as unable to be one's ultimate support is rendered as honoring those bonds while resting the whole self on the One, not as diminishing family; the world-as-dream is kept as an invitation to hold life lightly rather than to fear it.
Love your people fully, but rest your whole self only on the One who stays.
The Arc
This opens Guru Tegh Bahadur's Saarang hymns. The rahau names the One as the only unfailing support, without diminishing the precious bonds of family. Verse one observes that nothing owned goes along when the body is set down. The close names the One as gentle with the small and the quiet loosener of sorrow, and the world, held too tightly, as a night's dream — vivid, then gone.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The world-as-dream is Guru Tegh Bahadur's recurring image across his hymns; it appears three times in this run (2714, 2716) and answers each time with holding life lightly and the One closely.
For Raag Saarang
Guru Tegh Bahadur brings a tender detachment to Saarang: the longing turns from what passes toward the One who stays.
Translation Notes
The naming of mother, father, child, and spouse as unable to be one's ultimate support is rendered as honoring those bonds while resting the whole self on the One, not as diminishing family; the world-as-dream is kept as an invitation to hold life lightly rather than to fear it.