Audio
Shabad
supnY aUBI BeI gihE kI n AMclw ]
suMdr purK ibrwijq pyiK mnu bMclw ]
Kojau qw ky crx khhu kq pweIAY ]
hirhW soeI jqMnu bqwie sKI ipRau pweIAY ]13]
In a dream, I came to be standing [before my beloved] – why did I not clasp his robe?
Seeing my beautiful Husband throned, my heart was cheated.
I search for his feet – tell me where they might be found?
O Hariha! Tell me the means, sister, by which I might find my beloved.
Notes
This shabad is taken from the verses of Guru Arjan’s Funhe composition, recited by the Guru to the ladies of his in-laws’ family on the occasion of his wedding to Mata Ganga. Using the symbology of the occasion of marriage, Guru Arjan speaks of the state of the soul-bride who still seeks union with the husband-lord, the clasping of the husband’s robe being a symbolic act in the marriage cerimony. The significance of the subtle or dream realm is with reference to the four states of consciousness, the ‘chautha pad‘ or ‘turiya avastha‘ being the fourth and ultimate state of pure consciousness in which the marriage of the soul and the supreme soul occurs. Caught in the other three states – waking, dreaming and sleeping – the soul is unable to attain this divine union.
This is an old composition set to eleven beats that was sung by both the ragis and rababis of the past and has been notated by Bhai Avtar Singh and Bhai Gurcharan Singh as well as by Gyani Gyan Singh Abbottabad – see below. The jori accompaniment features traditional repertoire, e.g. chaunkris, including compositions of great percussive masters of the Darbar Sahib, Amritsar, i.e. Bhai Mehtab Singh and Bhai Harnam Singh ‘Jammuwale’.
