Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Father, when you give me gifts for my new life — give me the Name. That is the dowry I need. Not gold, not a display of what we own. The Name.
Give me the Lord as my gown — the Lord as my beauty, the Lord as what makes my life actually work. Through devotion to Him, the ceremony becomes truly joyful. The True Guru gives this gift.
And this is a gift that never runs out. Share it with the whole universe and there is still more. Every person who carries the Name adds to its radiance — nothing is diminished.
The self-turned soul prepares a different display — the show of ego, the show of wealth, the show of what it owns. That display is hollow. It will not accompany you anywhere.
The dowry scene
In Punjabi culture, a bride's dowry (dāj) was the father's gift to his daughter for her new home — clothing, utensils, jewelry, items of practical and symbolic value. It set the tone for her standing in the new household. The dowry was not merely personal; it was a statement about the family's honor and love.
Guru Ram Das takes this deeply familiar scene and transforms it completely. The soul-bride turns to her father at the moment of departure and makes a radical request: har prabh mere bābolā, har devhu dān mai dājo — "O my father, give me the Lord God's Name as my wedding gift and dowry." Not the conventional goods. The Name.
This pauri is one of the most widely known in all of Guru Ram Das's compositions, precisely because it captures something universally true: the question of what is actually worth carrying into a new life, a new stage, a new beginning.
"Give me the Lord as my wedding gown"
The gown (kapṛo) in the wedding is the outward symbol of the bride's beauty and the family's investment. Here it becomes the Lord Himself: har kapṛo har sobhā devhu — "give me the Lord as my gown and glory." The bride asks to be clothed in the divine itself. Not adorned with the divine — clothed in it. The Lord becomes her covering, her beauty, the thing that accomplishes her work.
The gift that does not divide
Ih dān na ralai ralā'i-ā — "this gift is not diminished by being diffused among all." This is the fundamental distinction between the sacred and the material. A material gift divided becomes smaller. The Lord's Name given to one does not reduce what is available for another. Every family at every table can have the full meal. This is not a figure of speech about generosity — it is a statement about the nature of the divine: its sharing is not subtraction.
The manmukh's hollow display
The final lines contrast sharply with the soul-bride's request. The manmukh (hor manmukh dāj) offers a dowry for show — kūṛ ahankār kach pājo — "false egotism and a worthless display." Kach means raw, unfinished, unfired — the opposite of the permanent, pakkā. The manmukh's spiritual currency, like cheap dye, will not last.
*If you had to choose one thing to carry into the next stage of your life — the one gift that would actually serve you — what would it be?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI