Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The husband is delighted seeing his sons and his wife beside him on the bed.
He applies sandalwood and scented oils. He dresses himself in his beautiful clothes.
But dust shall mix with dust. He shall depart — leaving hearth and home behind.
The scene in Pauri 5 is one of the most tender and precisely observed in the ashtapadees: sut sandee-ai mayraa nit tis-ai suhaavnaa — the husband is delighted seeing his sons; day after day he gazes at them and is pleased. Sayj narindrai sukh vaseh, nit aavni jaavnaa — his wife sleeps beside him in contentment; he comes and goes in the daily rhythm of domestic life.
Chandan choa laavnaa, sohnay kaparr paavnaa — he applies sandalwood (chandan) and scented oils, dresses himself in beautiful clothes. The attention to physical detail is deliberate: sandalwood paste, fragrant oils, fine clothing. These are the marks of care for the body, for appearance, for the pleasure of the senses. They are not wrong. The man is enjoying his life.
Mitti mitti hoi-aa, chhadi giaa ghar baavnaa — but dust shall mix with dust; he shall depart, leaving hearth and home (ghar baavnaa — his household, his entire domestic world). The body — even the body perfumed with sandalwood — is dust, and returns to dust. The sons, the wife, the household he loved — all left behind in the departure. The composition does not mock the pleasures: it places them clearly within a frame that makes their transience visible. Enjoy them. But know what frame they exist in.
What do you most love about your daily life at home — and how would you live it differently if you held it a little more lightly?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI