Bless me with the sweet Name — a sweetness you can taste, sing, and turn over all at once.
The Arc
This six-verse shabad asks for the nectar-Name and traces what it does: it eases the pains of the humble, becomes a sweetness met three ways (tasted, sung, contemplated) that opens the gate of freedom, and steadies the mind of anyone who leans on it — because the One it rests on is itself unmoving. A self-turned mind, by contrast, drifts stuck between shores, still reachable by grace; and the shabad closes with the One pervading every heart and the humblest servant asking only to be kept close.
Key Vocabulary
amrit naam — the nectar-Name that brings the soul alive.
amrit ras — the Name savored, sung, and contemplated at once.
mokh du-aaray — the gate of liberation.
achal achlaa — the unmoving, unchanging One.
ghat ghat ravi-aa — pervading each and every heart.
Themes and Cross-Connections
Steadiness caught from a steady One, and the Name as a sweetness met by every faculty, are the keynotes here. The contrast between the settled Gurmukh and the drifting manmukh runs throughout Guru Ram Das's Saarang shabads.
For Raag Saarang
The raag's longing quiets into steadiness in this shabad: the heart that leans on the Name stops being tossed about, because it is rooted in what cannot be shaken.
Translation Notes
manmukh and the between-shores image are held as a describable, changeable state with hope, not a final verdict — grace can still reach it. daasan daas (servant of servants) is rendered as deep humility without self-abasement.
Bless me with the sweet Name — a sweetness you can taste, sing, and turn over all at once.
The Arc
This six-verse shabad asks for the nectar-Name and traces what it does: it eases the pains of the humble, becomes a sweetness met three ways (tasted, sung, contemplated) that opens the gate of freedom, and steadies the mind of anyone who leans on it — because the One it rests on is itself unmoving. A self-turned mind, by contrast, drifts stuck between shores, still reachable by grace; and the shabad closes with the One pervading every heart and the humblest servant asking only to be kept close.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
Steadiness caught from a steady One, and the Name as a sweetness met by every faculty, are the keynotes here. The contrast between the settled Gurmukh and the drifting manmukh runs throughout Guru Ram Das's Saarang shabads.
For Raag Saarang
The raag's longing quiets into steadiness in this shabad: the heart that leans on the Name stops being tossed about, because it is rooted in what cannot be shaken.
Translation Notes
manmukh and the between-shores image are held as a describable, changeable state with hope, not a final verdict — grace can still reach it. daasan daas (servant of servants) is rendered as deep humility without self-abasement.