If my body were paper and my tongue a pen, I would spend it all writing the Name.
The Arc
A tender ashtapadee with the refrain pi-aaray (Beloved) and a strong Hukam thread. Pauri 0: those who serve the Guru lift their companions too; grace carries the heavy across. Pauri 1 (Rahau): still I praise You; praise is the boat across the sea of fear. Pauri 2: praise the One praiseworthy; good company churns out joy. Pauri 3: truth is the passport, the Name its seal; all comes and goes within the flow of existence. Pauri 4: all of life unfolds within Hukam. Pauri 5: by the flow we come and go — fall into step and be robed in honor. Pauri 6: ego's score-keeping makes us heavy; recognizing the Command brings honor. Pauri 7: the True Name is hard to speak — blessed are those who sing it; union comes by Grace. Pauri 8: if the whole self became writing tools, spend it writing the Name into the heart.
Key Vocabulary
tin kay saath taray: even their companions are carried across
vin bohith bhai dubee-ai: without the boat, one drowns in the sea of fear
hukmee hukam pachhaan: recognize the Command of the Commander
nadree mayl: union by the Glance of Grace
kaa-i-aa kaagad, laltaa laykhan: the body as paper, the tongue as pen
Themes and Cross-Connections
Goodness is contagious; praise as the boat; Hukam as the flow all life moves within; grace over effort; devotion as writing the Name into one's being. The Beloved-refrain gives the ashtapadee an intimate warmth.
For Raag Sorath
The pi-aaray refrain lends this ashtapadee Sorath's close, tender feeling.
Translation Notes
The Rahau sits in Pauri 1. The womb and birth-posture imagery ('conceived, grown in the womb, born head-first upside-down') and the 'bound, gagged, driven, punished' lines are dropped or softened per the wellbeing rules; Hukam is rendered as 'the flow of existence,' and bhai as awe or, in 'sea of fear,' as the frightening ocean of existence.
If my body were paper and my tongue a pen, I would spend it all writing the Name.
The Arc
A tender ashtapadee with the refrain pi-aaray (Beloved) and a strong Hukam thread. Pauri 0: those who serve the Guru lift their companions too; grace carries the heavy across. Pauri 1 (Rahau): still I praise You; praise is the boat across the sea of fear. Pauri 2: praise the One praiseworthy; good company churns out joy. Pauri 3: truth is the passport, the Name its seal; all comes and goes within the flow of existence. Pauri 4: all of life unfolds within Hukam. Pauri 5: by the flow we come and go — fall into step and be robed in honor. Pauri 6: ego's score-keeping makes us heavy; recognizing the Command brings honor. Pauri 7: the True Name is hard to speak — blessed are those who sing it; union comes by Grace. Pauri 8: if the whole self became writing tools, spend it writing the Name into the heart.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
Goodness is contagious; praise as the boat; Hukam as the flow all life moves within; grace over effort; devotion as writing the Name into one's being. The Beloved-refrain gives the ashtapadee an intimate warmth.
For Raag Sorath
The pi-aaray refrain lends this ashtapadee Sorath's close, tender feeling.
Translation Notes
The Rahau sits in Pauri 1. The womb and birth-posture imagery ('conceived, grown in the womb, born head-first upside-down') and the 'bound, gagged, driven, punished' lines are dropped or softened per the wellbeing rules; Hukam is rendered as 'the flow of existence,' and bhai as awe or, in 'sea of fear,' as the frightening ocean of existence.