rāgu āsā mahalā 1 asṭpadīā gharu 3
ikoaṅkār satigur prasādi.
jin siri sohani paṭīā māṁgī pāi sandhūru.
se sir kātī munnīan̖i gal vici āvai dhūṛi.
mahalā andari hodīā huṇi bahaṇi na milan̖i hadūri.1.
ādesu bābā ādesu.
ādi purakh terā antu na pāiā kari kari dekhahi ves.1. rahāu.
jadahu sīā vīāhīā lāṛe sohani pāsi.
hīḍolī caṛi āīā dand khanḍ kīte rāsi.
uprahu pāṇī vārīai jhale jhimkani pāsi.2.
iku lakhu lahan̖i bahiṭhīā lakhu lahan̖i khaṛīā.
garī chuhāre khāṁdīā māṇan̖i sejaṛīā.
tin̖ gali silkā pāīā tuṭan̖i motsarīā.3.
dhanu jobanu dui vairī hoe jin̖ī rakhe raṅgu lāi.
dūtā no phurmāiā lai cale pati gavāi.
je tisu bhāvai de vaḍiāī je bhāvai dei sajāi.4.
ago de je cetīai tāṁ kāitu milai sajāi.
sāhāṁ surati gavāīā raṅgi tamāsai cāi.
bābarvāṇī phiri gaī kuiru na roṭī khāi.5.
iknā vakhat khuāīahi ikn̖ā pūjā jāi.
caüke viṇu hindvāṇīā kiu ṭike kaḍhahi nāi.
rāmu na kabahū cetio huṇi kahaṇi na milai khudāi.6.
iki ghari āvahi āpaṇai iki mili mili puchahi sukh.
ikn̖ā eho likhiā bahi bahi rovahi dukh.
jo tisu bhāvai so thīai nānak kiā mānukh.7.11.
-Guru Granth Sahib 417
Guru Nanak Sahib affirms the unknowable mystery of IkOankar (the Divine). IkOankar by Own-Self pervades in all the creations by assuming various forms and watching over them. The beings receive comfort or suffering as per the will of IkOankar. If the being lives by inculcating the virtues of IkOankar, suffering will not affect them.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
Asa is a rag (musical mode) that traditionally evokes a feeling of hopefulness. It infuses this composition, which reflects on a moment of great violence and upheaval, with a sense of the unshakeable poise that Guru Nanak exhibits — and invites us to experience.
The four compositions by Guru Nanak, conventionally referred to as Babarvani (Utterances on Babar), describe Babar’s (popular spelling is Babur) invasion of South Asia and overthrow of Lodhi’s regime, which founded the Mughal Empire. In these compositions, Guru Nanak documents the human suffering caused by the invasion and places it into the context of IkOankar (One Universal Integrative Force, 1Force).
In the second Babarvani composition, Guru Nanak says, Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. Guru Nanak begins this composition with jarring contrasts: An image of heads with beautiful braids and streaks of vermilion is followed by an image of those same heads being shaved with scissors and choking on dirt. These women of the ruling Pathan ethnic group, who once resided in palaces, could not even get near them after the attack by Babar. These opening lines jostle us between visions of luxury and poverty, worldly power, and powerlessness. In their abruptness, they mimic how circumstances out of our control might take us from happiness to despair, comfort to the suffering, in an instant.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. The second stanza recounts these women’s wedding days when they were surrounded by wealth and were fawned over — the violence and loss of the first stanza tinge on the picturesque images in the second. We hear of beautiful bridegrooms, ivory palanquins, and glittering fans, but we know this wealth will be wrested violently away and these women exiled from their former homes. They must have felt great optimism on their wedding day, never suspecting that the future of comfort and ease they imagined might give way suddenly to terror and loss.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. These women used to generate wealth without even trying; nooses have now replaced the pearls torn from their necks. We can lose our worldly treasures — even our lives — as quickly as we can swap one necklace for another.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. The wealth and youth these women cherished and regarded as blessings have made them targets of violence. Babar’s soldiers have raped them and killed them. We might assume that we will only suffer once we lose our wealth and youth. But here, Guru Nanak shows that they can bring misery even while we possess them. Why, then, do we place such value on them? Guru Nanak then points our attention to the one ultimate cause of both fortune and misfortune, IkOankar (One Universal Integrative Force, 1Force).
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. A rhetorical question suggests that had the Pathan nobility kept their awareness of the One, they wouldn’t have suffered under Babar as they did. But they were distracted by their luxuries, and now they couldn’t even eat. Even if we do not have riches, we will experience something like what Guru Nanak describes. We will lose our youth, health, and material possessions. And if we are attached to those things, we will suffer. Even if we didn’t think of ourselves as vain in our youth, we might pine for our younger bodies. We may look in the mirror and feel that we don’t recognize our reflection. Even if we never lived extravagantly, we may struggle to let go of our material possessions when it comes time to live more modestly. As our attachment to these things prevents us from focusing our attention on IkOankar, they even hurt us while we have them.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. Catastrophe has pushed people even farther from IkOankar. Muslims and Hindus are unable to worship according to their traditions. Hindus who never reflected on the Divine by chanting Ram now repeat the Muslim name Khuda (perhaps to appease the new Mughal ruling class), but it does them no good. Waiting until we are in a desperate situation to practice devotion may leave us without the spiritual tools to connect with IkOankar and ease our suffering. If, instead, we recognize that the human condition is inherently one of desperation — that our lives are subject in all ways to IkOankar — we might focus on IkOankar before we meet misfortune and thus avoid suffering.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. In the final stanza, the dust settles on the violence. Survivors wander back to their homes, ask about the whereabouts of loved ones, and weep in grief. The final message: Everything happens according to what pleases IkOankar; that is the Divine Will. Humans can do nothing on their own. It’s a simple command, yet we may find it difficult to accept. We may prefer to trust our own actions or material wealth. But in reflecting on Babar’s violent overthrow of the ruling Pathans, Guru Nanak challenges our self-flattering assessments of our power to shape our own lives.
Are we going to remain absorbed in temporary pleasures, putting off contemplation and 1Force-1Ness living until some future catastrophe? Why do we trust our own powers to keep us safe? When will we entrust the all-powerful One?
The four compositions by Guru Nanak, conventionally referred to as Babarvani (Utterances on Babar), describe Babar’s (popular spelling is Babur) invasion of South Asia and overthrow of Lodhi’s regime, which founded the Mughal Empire. In these compositions, Guru Nanak documents the human suffering caused by the invasion and places it into the context of IkOankar (One Universal Integrative Force, 1Force).
In the second Babarvani composition, Guru Nanak says, Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. Guru Nanak begins this composition with jarring contrasts: An image of heads with beautiful braids and streaks of vermilion is followed by an image of those same heads being shaved with scissors and choking on dirt. These women of the ruling Pathan ethnic group, who once resided in palaces, could not even get near them after the attack by Babar. These opening lines jostle us between visions of luxury and poverty, worldly power, and powerlessness. In their abruptness, they mimic how circumstances out of our control might take us from happiness to despair, comfort to the suffering, in an instant.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. The second stanza recounts these women’s wedding days when they were surrounded by wealth and were fawned over — the violence and loss of the first stanza tinge on the picturesque images in the second. We hear of beautiful bridegrooms, ivory palanquins, and glittering fans, but we know this wealth will be wrested violently away and these women exiled from their former homes. They must have felt great optimism on their wedding day, never suspecting that the future of comfort and ease they imagined might give way suddenly to terror and loss.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. These women used to generate wealth without even trying; nooses have now replaced the pearls torn from their necks. We can lose our worldly treasures — even our lives — as quickly as we can swap one necklace for another.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. The wealth and youth these women cherished and regarded as blessings have made them targets of violence. Babar’s soldiers have raped them and killed them. We might assume that we will only suffer once we lose our wealth and youth. But here, Guru Nanak shows that they can bring misery even while we possess them. Why, then, do we place such value on them? Guru Nanak then points our attention to the one ultimate cause of both fortune and misfortune, IkOankar (One Universal Integrative Force, 1Force).
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. A rhetorical question suggests that had the Pathan nobility kept their awareness of the One, they wouldn’t have suffered under Babar as they did. But they were distracted by their luxuries, and now they couldn’t even eat. Even if we do not have riches, we will experience something like what Guru Nanak describes. We will lose our youth, health, and material possessions. And if we are attached to those things, we will suffer. Even if we didn’t think of ourselves as vain in our youth, we might pine for our younger bodies. We may look in the mirror and feel that we don’t recognize our reflection. Even if we never lived extravagantly, we may struggle to let go of our material possessions when it comes time to live more modestly. As our attachment to these things prevents us from focusing our attention on IkOankar, they even hurt us while we have them.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. Catastrophe has pushed people even farther from IkOankar. Muslims and Hindus are unable to worship according to their traditions. Hindus who never reflected on the Divine by chanting Ram now repeat the Muslim name Khuda (perhaps to appease the new Mughal ruling class), but it does them no good. Waiting until we are in a desperate situation to practice devotion may leave us without the spiritual tools to connect with IkOankar and ease our suffering. If, instead, we recognize that the human condition is inherently one of desperation — that our lives are subject in all ways to IkOankar — we might focus on IkOankar before we meet misfortune and thus avoid suffering.
Hail! O respected One! Hail! O Primal Being! Your limit cannot be found; having guised continually, You are watching over them. In the final stanza, the dust settles on the violence. Survivors wander back to their homes, ask about the whereabouts of loved ones, and weep in grief. The final message: Everything happens according to what pleases IkOankar; that is the Divine Will. Humans can do nothing on their own. It’s a simple command, yet we may find it difficult to accept. We may prefer to trust our own actions or material wealth. But in reflecting on Babar’s violent overthrow of the ruling Pathans, Guru Nanak challenges our self-flattering assessments of our power to shape our own lives.
Are we going to remain absorbed in temporary pleasures, putting off contemplation and 1Force-1Ness living until some future catastrophe? Why do we trust our own powers to keep us safe? When will we entrust the all-powerful One?
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