Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Here's a little poem built on a three-way rhyme game.
Listen for how each line lands on three matching sounds — and where the whole game is leading.
This one opens a word game. It's the last shabad of Raag Todee, and it plays in a way the others don't.
Teen chhanday khayl aachhai — here is a game of three rhymes. This is the rahaa-o, the "pause" line, the center of the shabad. Bhagat Naam Dayv tells us his plan up front. Each verse will name three ordinary things found in three ordinary places. And the three names will rhyme.
It sounds like a nursery rhyme or a memory trick. That's exactly the charm. It's like a clapping game on the playground. Naam Dayv uses a children's game to slip in the deepest point of all. He saves it for the very last line.
For the Bhagats, poems and fun are perfectly good ways to carry what is holy.
Can something playful and fun also be teaching you something serious? Have you learned from a game or a song?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI