Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
In the first watch of the night, the Lord placed you in the womb. You didn't choose it, and you didn't arrange it. You were already meditating on the Name inside the fire of those first months — the Name sustained you before you had words for it.
When you were born and your parents saw your face, their hearts filled with joy. But remember: this child — you — belongs to the One who made you. Carry that knowing in your heart.
Says Nanak: in the first watch of the night, dwell upon the Lord, who will always pour grace over you.
Guru Ram Das — the fourth Guru's voice
Guru Ram Das (1534–1581) composed this Pehray, and his voice is immediately recognizable: warmer, more intimate, more focused on the Lord's active role in sustaining the soul. Where Guru Nanak observes the human journey with the clear eye of the first discoverer, Guru Ram Das describes it with the tenderness of someone who has lived deeply inside the devotional tradition that Guru Nanak founded.
Guru Ram Das was the son-in-law of Guru Amar Das and was appointed the Fourth Guru at age thirty-eight. He founded Amritsar (then called Ramdas Pur), the city that would become the center of the Sikh world. His compositions are notable for their depth of feeling — the longing of the vihoṛā (soul in separation), the joy of reunion, the intimacy of the devotee's relationship with the divine.
"The Lord places you in the womb"
The opening line makes the Lord's agency explicit: har pā'i-ā udar manjhār — "the Lord places you in the womb." In Guru Nanak's first Pehray (Shabad 129), the agency was hukam (the divine command/flow). Here, Guru Ram Das makes it personal: the Lord himself does the placing. This is not a theological difference — it is a devotional emphasis. Guru Ram Das speaks from a place of intimate relationship with the divine.
Meditation in the fire of the womb
Vich agnī har jap jeevi-ā — "within the fire of the womb, your life is sustained by dwelling on the Naam." The womb as a place of fire — of intense heat, of transformation — is a classical image. What keeps the soul alive in that fire? Not anything the soul does consciously. The Naam sustains it. Grace is operating before consciousness arrives. This is Guru Ram Das's signature teaching: the Lord's care precedes the devotee's awareness of it.
"Remember the One to whom the child belongs"
Jis kī vasat tis chetahu prāṇī — "remember the One, O mortal, to whom this child belongs." This line reframes parenthood entirely. The child is not yours. The child belongs to the One who made it, placed it, and sustains it. You — the parent — are the steward of something that was never yours to begin with. This is not cold. It is, paradoxically, the deepest form of love: loving without possession, caring without claiming.
*If you thought of everything you love — your family, your life — as belonging to God rather than to you, how would that change how you hold them?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI