Why puff up over the little you happen to be holding? Nothing came in with you, and nothing goes out.
The Arc
You have a few things you are proud of. Maybe a new phone, a good score, a little money saved. It is easy to walk a bit taller because of them. Hold them lightly. Power and money are like green leaves on a tree. They are alive and lovely, and they last a season. You came into the world with empty hands, and you leave the same way. Even the mightiest kings were here and then gone. What stays steady is the One in your heart. Keep the One close today, and love your people well. At the centre, the Rahao: why swell with pride over a little grain and a few coins?
Key Vocabulary
Garab — pride, the puffing-up over small holdings. Har paat — green leaves, alive but only for a season. Raawan — a legendary emperor of immense might in the old stories. Thir — steady, unshaken. Satsang — the Sangat — people gathered together to remember the One. Ba-uray — "crazy one", a warm nudge to wake up. Janam akaarath — a life slipping by unused.
Themes and Cross-Connections
Impermanence of wealth and power; worth apart from possessions; the steadiness of the Name; belonging over having. The turn from clutching to trust rhymes with the whole raag, and the naming of family who cannot follow anticipates Kabir's own closing shabad of the block (Shabad 176).
For Raag Saarang
Saarang is the raag of longing; Kabir points that longing away from things that fade and toward the One that holds.
Translation Notes
The heading raag saarang banee bhagtaan kee / kabeer jee marks this as Bhagat Kabir's shabad, the first in the Bhagats' section of Raag Saarang. The Rahao comes in the opening verse.
Hukumnama
Subject: Stay humble about the little you hold Preview: a sack of grain, a few coins, a hundred villages, green leaves, and an emperor gone in a breath.
Today: You have a few things you are proud of. Maybe a new phone, a good score, a little money saved. It is easy to walk a bit taller because of them. Hold them lightly. Power and money are like green leaves on a tree. They are alive and lovely, and they last a season. You came into the world with empty hands, and you leave the same way. Even the mightiest kings were here and then gone. What stays steady is the One in your heart. Keep the One close today, and love your people well.
Stay humble, and keep the One close.
For today: Thank the One today for one thing you own, and then share it with someone.
Why puff up over the little you happen to be holding? Nothing came in with you, and nothing goes out.
The Arc
You have a few things you are proud of. Maybe a new phone, a good score, a little money saved. It is easy to walk a bit taller because of them. Hold them lightly. Power and money are like green leaves on a tree. They are alive and lovely, and they last a season. You came into the world with empty hands, and you leave the same way. Even the mightiest kings were here and then gone. What stays steady is the One in your heart. Keep the One close today, and love your people well. At the centre, the Rahao: why swell with pride over a little grain and a few coins?
Key Vocabulary
Garab — pride, the puffing-up over small holdings. Har paat — green leaves, alive but only for a season. Raawan — a legendary emperor of immense might in the old stories. Thir — steady, unshaken. Satsang — the Sangat — people gathered together to remember the One. Ba-uray — "crazy one", a warm nudge to wake up. Janam akaarath — a life slipping by unused.
Themes and Cross-Connections
Impermanence of wealth and power; worth apart from possessions; the steadiness of the Name; belonging over having. The turn from clutching to trust rhymes with the whole raag, and the naming of family who cannot follow anticipates Kabir's own closing shabad of the block (Shabad 176).
For Raag Saarang
Saarang is the raag of longing; Kabir points that longing away from things that fade and toward the One that holds.
Translation Notes
The heading raag saarang banee bhagtaan kee / kabeer jee marks this as Bhagat Kabir's shabad, the first in the Bhagats' section of Raag Saarang. The Rahao comes in the opening verse.
Hukumnama
Subject: Stay humble about the little you hold Preview: a sack of grain, a few coins, a hundred villages, green leaves, and an emperor gone in a breath.
Today: You have a few things you are proud of. Maybe a new phone, a good score, a little money saved. It is easy to walk a bit taller because of them. Hold them lightly. Power and money are like green leaves on a tree. They are alive and lovely, and they last a season. You came into the world with empty hands, and you leave the same way. Even the mightiest kings were here and then gone. What stays steady is the One in your heart. Keep the One close today, and love your people well.
Stay humble, and keep the One close.
For today: Thank the One today for one thing you own, and then share it with someone.