Raag Wadahans, ALAAHANEE (Song of Mourning), Mehl 1 (Guru Nanak)
A landmark form: the funeral song. Guru Nanak helps families hold death with love — the soul as a swan flying home, the world as a visit to treasure, and the tender teaching that the truest tears are tears of love.
The Form and the Care
An Alaahanee is a traditional Punjabi funeral dirge, sung by mourners (especially women) at a death. Guru Nanak took this form of ordinary grief and filled it with meaning — reframing death not as a horror but as a homecoming, and grief not as despair but as love. Raag Wadahans is traditionally the raag of mourning, and these Alaahnian (B00C1198–1202) are its emotional heart. They are a sensitive subject, and are handled here with great gentleness for a child: the frightening literal imagery of the originals (see Translation Notes) is set aside, and the comforting, redemptive teachings are foregrounded. This is exactly the tradition's own instinct — Sikh funerals sing of anand (bliss) and reunion, holding death within love.
The Arc
Pauri 0: everything that lives has a gentle ending; the soul is a swan that flies home. Pauri 1: since we are all guests here, stay humble, kind, and treasure your days. Pauri 2: this world is a precious opportunity to do good. Pauri 3 gives the deepest teaching — the truest tears are tears of love, not tears over lost possessions.
Key Vocabulary
Alaahanee — a funeral song; here filled with comfort and meaning.
Hans / the swan-soul (P0) — the soul pictured flying home; death as a homecoming.
Guests in the world (P1) — humility and gratitude in a limited, precious life.
"This world is an opportunity" (P2) — life as a chance to love and do good.
Tears of love vs. tears over loss (P3) — grief from love is holy; the form honors, not forbids, tears.
Translation Notes
Major wellbeing handling. Guru Nanak's Alaahnian contain frank funeral imagery — the soul "caught and driven off," relatives "crying out in mourning," the body-and-soul separated. For a child, the framing is kept gentle and honest: death as a natural, gentle ending and a going-home (the swan), never as terror. The comforting and redemptive teachings are foregrounded.
P3's distinction is rendered carefully so it honors the tears of love and never shames a grieving child for crying — with an added note that a grieving child needs warmth and closeness most of all.
"According to past actions" (karma) is kept light, as gentle consequence, not a verdict.
Themes and Cross-Connections
Death-as-homecoming is the tradition's steady framing (Kirtan Sohila's "death as a wedding," Gauree B00C264; Anand Sahib sung at funerals). "The world as a visit to treasure" restates Bihaagraa B00C1153 ("what goes with you") and B00C1145 ("a beautiful playground we visit"). "Tears of love" is Guru Nanak's tender reframing of grief, echoed in B00C1201/1202. The swan-soul recurs in the raag (B00C1182 crane-to-swan) and the GGS.
For Raag Wadahans
Handled with the gentleness it deserves, this funeral song gives a child a way to hold one of life's hardest truths. Everything that lives has a beginning and, one day, a gentle ending — and the soul, Guru Nanak says, is like a swan that lifts up and flies home. Because our time here is a precious visit, we can treasure it, stay humble and kind, and spend it loving and doing good. And most tender of all: it is good and right to cry when you love someone. Tears that come from love are the truest tears there are — and a sad heart most needs a warm hug close by.
A landmark form: the funeral song. Guru Nanak helps families hold death with love — the soul as a swan flying home, the world as a visit to treasure, and the tender teaching that the truest tears are tears of love.
The Form and the Care
An Alaahanee is a traditional Punjabi funeral dirge, sung by mourners (especially women) at a death. Guru Nanak took this form of ordinary grief and filled it with meaning — reframing death not as a horror but as a homecoming, and grief not as despair but as love. Raag Wadahans is traditionally the raag of mourning, and these Alaahnian (B00C1198–1202) are its emotional heart. They are a sensitive subject, and are handled here with great gentleness for a child: the frightening literal imagery of the originals (see Translation Notes) is set aside, and the comforting, redemptive teachings are foregrounded. This is exactly the tradition's own instinct — Sikh funerals sing of anand (bliss) and reunion, holding death within love.
The Arc
Pauri 0: everything that lives has a gentle ending; the soul is a swan that flies home. Pauri 1: since we are all guests here, stay humble, kind, and treasure your days. Pauri 2: this world is a precious opportunity to do good. Pauri 3 gives the deepest teaching — the truest tears are tears of love, not tears over lost possessions.
Key Vocabulary
Translation Notes
Themes and Cross-Connections
Death-as-homecoming is the tradition's steady framing (Kirtan Sohila's "death as a wedding," Gauree B00C264; Anand Sahib sung at funerals). "The world as a visit to treasure" restates Bihaagraa B00C1153 ("what goes with you") and B00C1145 ("a beautiful playground we visit"). "Tears of love" is Guru Nanak's tender reframing of grief, echoed in B00C1201/1202. The swan-soul recurs in the raag (B00C1182 crane-to-swan) and the GGS.
For Raag Wadahans
Handled with the gentleness it deserves, this funeral song gives a child a way to hold one of life's hardest truths. Everything that lives has a beginning and, one day, a gentle ending — and the soul, Guru Nanak says, is like a swan that lifts up and flies home. Because our time here is a precious visit, we can treasure it, stay humble and kind, and spend it loving and doing good. And most tender of all: it is good and right to cry when you love someone. Tears that come from love are the truest tears there are — and a sad heart most needs a warm hug close by.
Last updated: 2026-07-05