Guru Arjan Sahib identifies with the female voice from the first-person perspective as kuchaji, or ‘ungraceful bride,’ a metaphor for a discontent, an ignorant seeker who is unaware of how to connect with IkOankar (the Divine). The seeker is advised to follow the example of the ‘kuchaji,’ who humbly recognizes her faults and how they affect her relationship with IkOankar. This Sabad encourages seekers to embrace their vulnerability by expressing longing and seeking. Through this Sabad, seekers are taught how to realize their shortcomings and seek grace from IkOankar.
rāgu sūhī mahalā 1 kucajī
ikoaṅkār satigur prasādi.
manñu kucajī ammāvaṇi ḍosaṛe haü kiu sahu rāvaṇi jāu jīu.
ik dū iki caṛandīā kaüṇu jāṇai merā nāu jīu.
jin̖ī sakhī sahu rāviā se ambī chāvaṛīehi jīu.
se guṇ manñu na āvanī haü kai jī dos dhareu jīu.
kiā guṇ tere vitharā haü kiā kiā ghinā terā nāu jīu.
ikatu ṭoli na ambaṛā haü sad kurbāṇe terai jāu jīu.
suinā rupā raṅgulā motī tai māṇiku jīu.
se vastū sahi ditīā mai tin̖ siu lāiā citu jīu.
mandar miṭī sandaṛe pathar kīte rāsi jīu.
haü enī ṭolī bhulīasu tisu kant na baiṭhī pāsi jīu.
ambari kūnjā kurlīā bag bahiṭhe āi jīu.
sādhan calī sāhurai kiā muhu desī agai jāi jīu.
sutī sutī jhālu thīā bhulī vāṭaṛīāsu jīu.
tai sah nālahu mutīasu dukhā kūṁ dharīāsu jīu.
tudhu guṇ mai sabhi avgaṇā ik nānak kī ardāsi jīu.
sabhi rātī sohāgaṇī mai ḍohāgaṇi kāī rāti jīu.1.
-Guru Granth Sahib 762
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
Guru Nanak sets this composition in the context of specific terms commonly used to refer to a bride who does not know the way or have the proper skills (kucaji), and the bride who has lost connection with her Spouse (duhagani). Guru Nanak takes those terms and uses them in the broader context of the union between the human seeker (bride) and the Divine (the Spouse, IkOankar, the 1Force). Guru Nanak identifies with Kucaji, the ungraceful bride who does not know the way. Because most of this composition is in the first person, the commentary is being presented from the first-person perspective:
I admit that I do not know the way, that I am the ungraceful bride, Dearest. I accept that I am full of flaws, Dearest. How can I expect a union with You?
I see the ones who are connected with You, Dearest, each one is better than the last. Who even knows my virtues? I see the ones who are connected with You, Dearest; they are basking under the shade of the mango grove, nurtured, satiated, comforted. Me? I am burning. Tell me, is there something I am not doing? How do I connect with You? I hunger, and I thirst for Your vision, only Your vision. I cannot live without it.
What can I really tell You about the qualities You have? What can I really say about You? I admit to You, Dearest, that I don't even know where to begin, how to connect with Your Vastness. And so, I eternally adore You forever, Dearest!
My Spouse has given me all of these gifts -- evidence of the relationship we have. I thought they were the wealth I was seeking. But these things do not mean anything to me. They distract me; they cause me to forget the real wealth, the intimacy I am seeking. Having a positional relationship -- naming a thing -- does not mean we have that connection. We all have a relationship with the Spouse, but that does not mean we are intimately connected.
Connected seekers, I am seeing that you all enjoy intimacy with the Spouse! I want that, too. But my black hair has turned grey, I have grown old! I feel as if I have run out of time, that I needed to take these steps toward my Beloved earlier. The night of life is gone, and the day is here, and I have spent my time asleep in the darkness of ignorance. I am separated! I am in pain! I do not know how to allow the light to show me the way.
Beloved Spouse, these seekers who have union with You are colored in love and devotion! I want that, too. Please, grace me! I am asking to be colored in Your love. The others are enjoying Your bed -- spare a night for this ungraceful one. Please, grace me with just one night of union. I just want to have a glimpse, even if I am unfortunate and ungraceful. I just want a glimpse. Only a glimpse.
Guru Nanak identifies with the kucaji, who is so in love that she is able to live in separation and pain patiently. What helps tide the kucaji over is being colored in the grace that she asks her Spouse for. The kucaji does not wallow in self-pity about why she is ungraceful, but instead accepts the reality of her state. She humbly submits and asks how to connect deeply instead of why she does not feel deeply connected. It is not that she is inherently virtueless or bad, or that she has somehow turned her back on the Spouse, abandoning the union altogether. It is instead that despite her attempts to connect, there is not that intimacy she observes between the Spouse and the fortunate seekers. This is due to an ungraceful execution, or a not-knowing. The Guru’s voice makes us comfortable with our own vulnerability, with expressing our own longing, our own seeking. To see that longing so lovingly expressed invites us to ask why that longing is not in us, or, if it is, how to continue longing in the way of the kucaji. Can we be that vulnerable? May we long for that glimpse!
