Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The one I love most is already inside me — deeper than any thought, closer than my own breath. And yet: how do I actually see Him?
In the shelter of the Saints, the answer comes. The breath's own support — found there.
The Chhants of Siree Raag — a unique structure
Shabad 135 is the most formally distinctive composition in Siree Raag. It alternates two different verse forms throughout:
Dakhanaa (Pauris 0, 2, 4, 6, 8): Short two-line couplets, headed Dakhanaa in the text itself. They function as concentrated seeds of insight: a question posed, a recognition stated, a truth compressed.
Chhant (Pauris 1, 3, 5, 7, 9): The longer six-line lyrical verses that expand upon what the Dakhanaa has seeded. The Chhant develops, deepens, and personifies what the Dakhanaa stated in miniature.
Together they create a call-and-response within a single composition: Dakhanaa seeds; Chhant blooms.
The opening paradox
Haṭh majhāhū mā pirī pasay ki-o dīdār — "My Beloved Husband Lord is deep within my heart. How can I see Him?" This is the classical mystical paradox stated with complete honesty. The Beloved is not absent or distant. He is within the heart, at the very center. The problem is not His distance but the soul's inability to perceive what is already here. The one thing she is looking for is the one thing she is looking with.
The answer is not a technique or a philosophy. It is a direction: the Sanctuary of the Saints (sant saranā'ī). In their company, what was already present becomes findable.
*Has anyone ever helped you see something that was right in front of you — something you had been looking past the whole time? What happened?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI