Raag Soohee, Chau-Pada with Second Pause, Mehl 5 (Guru Arjan)
I searched every land for the Beloved, and found the fire quenched at home.
The Arc
A Chhant-like shabad of longing and homecoming. An intense yearning wells up; the seeker searches everywhere, prepares the home, wanders — and still does not see the Beloved. The Rahao cries: how can this humble heart be comforted? Come, Friend. The verses picture the soul asleep while the Beloved is ever-awake, intoxicated in distraction, waking only when called; hope thins after long travel through every land; and then grace arrives, uniting the seeker with the sangat and quenching the fire of longing — the Beloved found within one's own home all along. A Second Pause seals it: wherever I look, I see the Beloved; the inner door has opened and the mind is at rest.
Key Vocabulary
umki-o hee-o: the heart surges with longing
saajan: friend, dear companion
pir sad jaagantaa: the Beloved is ever-awake
satsang: the company of the truth-seekers
ghareh pir paa-i-aa: found the Beloved within the home
rahaa-o doojaa: the Second Pause
Themes and Cross-Connections
The whole shabad turns on the irony named across this block: we search far for what is near. bharam bharam aa-i-o (wandering) resolves in ghareh pir paa-i-aa (found at home) — the same inward turn as the philosophy note on Gurprasad, grace that was always here once we stop blocking it. The Beloved as saajan (friend) keeps the tone warm, not fearful.
For Raag Soohee
Soohee's longing color runs right through this shabad. The raag of love holds both the ache of searching and the joy of finding, and Guru Arjan lets the seeker travel the whole world only to arrive back inside her own home.
Translation Notes
The wine-intoxication line (pee-o madro Dhan matvantaa) is read as the daze of distraction, and the bed/union imagery as the soul's meeting with the One — kept gentle and non-literal for children, with the fire 'quenched' and the mind 'at rest' foregrounded.
I searched every land for the Beloved, and found the fire quenched at home.
The Arc
A Chhant-like shabad of longing and homecoming. An intense yearning wells up; the seeker searches everywhere, prepares the home, wanders — and still does not see the Beloved. The Rahao cries: how can this humble heart be comforted? Come, Friend. The verses picture the soul asleep while the Beloved is ever-awake, intoxicated in distraction, waking only when called; hope thins after long travel through every land; and then grace arrives, uniting the seeker with the sangat and quenching the fire of longing — the Beloved found within one's own home all along. A Second Pause seals it: wherever I look, I see the Beloved; the inner door has opened and the mind is at rest.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The whole shabad turns on the irony named across this block: we search far for what is near. bharam bharam aa-i-o (wandering) resolves in ghareh pir paa-i-aa (found at home) — the same inward turn as the philosophy note on Gurprasad, grace that was always here once we stop blocking it. The Beloved as saajan (friend) keeps the tone warm, not fearful.
For Raag Soohee
Soohee's longing color runs right through this shabad. The raag of love holds both the ache of searching and the joy of finding, and Guru Arjan lets the seeker travel the whole world only to arrive back inside her own home.
Translation Notes
The wine-intoxication line (pee-o madro Dhan matvantaa) is read as the daze of distraction, and the bed/union imagery as the soul's meeting with the One — kept gentle and non-literal for children, with the fire 'quenched' and the mind 'at rest' foregrounded.