Stars fade and mountains pass — but the true Word stays, tied close in the corner of the robe.
The Arc
A meditation on impermanence and what endures. The rahau declares the One and the true Word sach — real all the way down — and ties that Word close. Three pauris then let everything else go: stars, sun, moon, mountains, seas; every kind of living being, even the scriptures; even the three qualities that make up changing nature. Each ends with the refrain that only the Word of the Holy endures. The close resolves it in Ik Onkar — the One being all, found through the Guru.
Key Vocabulary
sach — the real; what endures when everything else washes off.
saadh bachan — the Word of the Holy; what the shabad calls unbreakable.
gaanthri — the knot of the robe; keeping a teaching close at hand.
the four births — the old catalog of every kind of life.
the three gunas — activity, inertia, and calm light; the qualities of changing nature.
aapay aap — the One that is entirely itself; khel — its play.
Themes and Cross-Connections
Sach as the most real, enduring thing is one of Guru Nanak's central words, and this shabad shows its opposite face — everything jhooth, impermanent, that only looks solid. The Ik Onkar close ties it back to the Granth's opening truth.
For Raag Saarang
The raag's ache turns here to a search for the one thing that will not pass — and finds it in the true Word.
Translation Notes
The long list of things that "vanish" is framed hopefully — not as doom but as a way of locating what truly lasts. Placing the Vedas and Shastras among passing things is handled evenhandedly: no tradition's scriptures are singled out; all texts belong to time, while the living truth behind them endures.
Stars fade and mountains pass — but the true Word stays, tied close in the corner of the robe.
The Arc
A meditation on impermanence and what endures. The rahau declares the One and the true Word sach — real all the way down — and ties that Word close. Three pauris then let everything else go: stars, sun, moon, mountains, seas; every kind of living being, even the scriptures; even the three qualities that make up changing nature. Each ends with the refrain that only the Word of the Holy endures. The close resolves it in Ik Onkar — the One being all, found through the Guru.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
Sach as the most real, enduring thing is one of Guru Nanak's central words, and this shabad shows its opposite face — everything jhooth, impermanent, that only looks solid. The Ik Onkar close ties it back to the Granth's opening truth.
For Raag Saarang
The raag's ache turns here to a search for the one thing that will not pass — and finds it in the true Word.
Translation Notes
The long list of things that "vanish" is framed hopefully — not as doom but as a way of locating what truly lasts. Placing the Vedas and Shastras among passing things is handled evenhandedly: no tradition's scriptures are singled out; all texts belong to time, while the living truth behind them endures.