Everything trades places, the full empties and the empty fills, and only the One never turns.
The Arc
From a home whose edges cannot be found (rahau), Kabir unrolls a catalogue of reversals: laughter to tears, inhabited to deserted, water to desert to mountain, beggar to king, unlearned to wise, every role to its opposite. All of it loosens our grip on any fixed state and lands on the One, beloved of those who love, as the single thing that never turns.
Key Vocabulary
Raajaasaram — the One boundless realm, whose edges cannot be measured. Chayree — belonging, rendered so rather than servitude. Oojar / basai — deserted / inhabited. Bhaykhaaree / raajaa — beggar / king. Balihaaree — rendered as giving oneself completely.
Themes and Cross-Connections
Impermanence and flux; the leveling of all rank, since today high and low trade places, in the Bhagats caste-loosening spirit; and the constancy of the One. It sits between Kabir opening pride-shabad and the Naam Dayv hymns that follow, all circling what does and does not last.
For Raag Saarang
The longing raag meets a turning world and finds its rest in the one unturning center.
Translation Notes
P0 carries no author line; it continues Kabir block from the previous shabad and is confirmed by kaho kabeer in the final verse, so this is Bhagat Kabir (inferred from context plus the closing signature). The rahau is in P0. Wellbeing: falls are rendered as returns to earth, not punishments. The woman-to-man and man-to-woman reversal is kept evenhanded as one more turning role, never a hierarchy.
Everything trades places, the full empties and the empty fills, and only the One never turns.
The Arc
From a home whose edges cannot be found (rahau), Kabir unrolls a catalogue of reversals: laughter to tears, inhabited to deserted, water to desert to mountain, beggar to king, unlearned to wise, every role to its opposite. All of it loosens our grip on any fixed state and lands on the One, beloved of those who love, as the single thing that never turns.
Key Vocabulary
Raajaasaram — the One boundless realm, whose edges cannot be measured. Chayree — belonging, rendered so rather than servitude. Oojar / basai — deserted / inhabited. Bhaykhaaree / raajaa — beggar / king. Balihaaree — rendered as giving oneself completely.
Themes and Cross-Connections
Impermanence and flux; the leveling of all rank, since today high and low trade places, in the Bhagats caste-loosening spirit; and the constancy of the One. It sits between Kabir opening pride-shabad and the Naam Dayv hymns that follow, all circling what does and does not last.
For Raag Saarang
The longing raag meets a turning world and finds its rest in the one unturning center.
Translation Notes
P0 carries no author line; it continues Kabir block from the previous shabad and is confirmed by kaho kabeer in the final verse, so this is Bhagat Kabir (inferred from context plus the closing signature). The rahau is in P0. Wellbeing: falls are rendered as returns to earth, not punishments. The woman-to-man and man-to-woman reversal is kept evenhanded as one more turning role, never a hierarchy.