Raag Soohee
Commentary

Raag Soohee, Panch-Pada, Mehl 1 (Guru Nanak)

Your Name is the madder-red that never fades; build the raft of practice, quiet the ego, and the robe of the heart is dyed forever.

The Arc

This is the quintessential Soohee shabad — its Rahao is the raag's own colour made word: tayraa ayko naam manjeeth-rhaa, Your Name is madder root, the deep dye that soaks through and never washes out. Around it: build the raft of practice for a calm crossing; the goodness carried inside is what unites the departing soul with the One; true union is never undone; quieting the ego sews the robe of devotion; and the close speaks tenderly to fellow travelers — our Beloved is so dear, we belong to the One.

Key Vocabulary

  • manjeeth: madder root, source of a deep, fast red dye
  • cholaa: robe (of the body, of devotion)
  • bayrhulaa: little raft
  • gun: virtue, goodness carried within
  • aavaa ga-on: coming and going, restlessness
  • ha-umai maar: quieting the ego

Themes and Cross-Connections

manjeeth versus cheap, fugitive dye is one of Gurbani's signature contrasts — love that holds versus love that washes out — and it belongs especially to Soohee, the red raag. The dyed robe echoes the Tilang "Dyer's Vat" thread: you do not colour yourself; the One is the dye.

For Raag Soohee

No shabad sits more naturally in Soohee: the raag of the love-coloured robe finds here its clearest image — the Name as the one dye whose red never fades.

Translation Notes

The closing ham sah kayree-aa daasee-aa casts the soul as the Lord's handmaidens (the soul-bride idiom); this is rendered as belonging and closeness ("we belong to the One, close as family") rather than as servitude or gendered marriage, per the project's soul-bride handling.

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