Don’t trade everything for the outside — live true, and both sides are fed.
The Arc
This shabad is a meditation on balance. It opens with a warning against a lopsided life — abandoning the inner for only the outer leaves one empty in both. The Pause reframes success as alignment: what pleases the One is what counts. The middle verse delivers the surprising promise that truthful living feeds inner and outer life together, then widens to the One awake in all, and closes in humility — even our best words are given, not owned.
Key Vocabulary
deen / dunee — the inner (spiritual) life / the world — not to be traded off against each other
parvaan — accepted, approved — what aligns with the One rather than what impresses
tosaa — travel-supplies — the provisions truthful living lays up for the road ahead
bolaa-i-aa — inspired to speak — one speaks only as moved by the One
Themes and Cross-Connections
Guru Arjan resists the false choice between spiritual life and worldly life — a hallmark of the Sikh householder path. Truthful living (dharam, punn) is presented not as renunciation but as the provision that carries you through both.
For Raag Soohee
Soohee is a raag of engaged, householder devotion, not withdrawal. Its refusal to split the inner and outer life — “supplies for the path, and the world not lost either” — is precisely the balanced love Soohee sings.
Translation Notes
SSK renders duhee saraa-ee khunaamee kahaa-ay as “known as a sinner in both worlds.” khunaamee means bad-repute or being left empty; the verse warns against a lopsided life rather than condemning a person. Rendered here as “empty in both,” per wellbeing guidance.
Don’t trade everything for the outside — live true, and both sides are fed.
The Arc
This shabad is a meditation on balance. It opens with a warning against a lopsided life — abandoning the inner for only the outer leaves one empty in both. The Pause reframes success as alignment: what pleases the One is what counts. The middle verse delivers the surprising promise that truthful living feeds inner and outer life together, then widens to the One awake in all, and closes in humility — even our best words are given, not owned.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
Guru Arjan resists the false choice between spiritual life and worldly life — a hallmark of the Sikh householder path. Truthful living (dharam, punn) is presented not as renunciation but as the provision that carries you through both.
For Raag Soohee
Soohee is a raag of engaged, householder devotion, not withdrawal. Its refusal to split the inner and outer life — “supplies for the path, and the world not lost either” — is precisely the balanced love Soohee sings.
Translation Notes
SSK renders duhee saraa-ee khunaamee kahaa-ay as “known as a sinner in both worlds.” khunaamee means bad-repute or being left empty; the verse warns against a lopsided life rather than condemning a person. Rendered here as “empty in both,” per wellbeing guidance.
Last updated: 2026-07-08