ਵਾਰਾਂ ਭਾਈ ਗੁਰਦਾਸ · The Key to Gurbani
The Varan of Bhai Gurdas
Bhai Gurdas was the trusted hand who wrote out the very first copy of the Guru Granth Sahib, and he lived beside four of the Gurus. Guru Arjan called his poetry the key that unlocks Gurbani. His forty Varan are long, singable poems in plain, loving Punjabi — and together they open a whole world. They begin with Guru Nanak walking a lost, quarrelling earth to light it again, then sing the heart of his path: keeping good company, serving others, staying humble and low as water, and the love between a teacher and a true student that can change a life. Some poems hold a gentle mirror up to the proud and the two-faced; others simply marvel at how boundless the Maker is, and rejoice that now, in every home, the name of Baba Nanak is sung. Read a little each day — you are being handed the key itself.
The Gurmukhi shown is the poem exactly as published; the roman line beneath it is generated by the site's transliterator, and the English below is our own loving translation. The short title over each stanza (for example, 'The Sun of Nanak Rises') is an editor's guide to help you find your way through a long poem — it is not part of Bhai Gurdas Ji's own words. One thing to hold as you read: where the poem surveys the many schools, sects and faiths of its day and grieves how each had drifted from love, it is not setting one tradition against another. Its whole heart is the opposite — that every path had lost the loving core, and that Guru Nanak came to rekindle it for everyone, Hindu and Muslim alike. The famous line here, 'Ram and Rahim they call — it is one Name, but two roads,' is the poem's own compass.
Author
Bhai Gurdas Ji · c. 1551–1636
Bhai Gurdas Ji was a poet, scholar and devoted Sikh who lived in the time of the third through sixth Gurus. When Guru Arjan Dev Ji gathered the sacred hymns into the first volume of the Adi Granth, it was Bhai Gurdas who wrote them down, verse by verse, as the Guru spoke. His own poetry is not in that scripture — and tradition remembers this as his own wish: in his humility he would not set his words beside the revealed Word of the Gurus and the saints whose hymns he was inscribing. Guru Arjan honoured that humility by calling his forty Varan 'the key to the Guru's Word' — and to this day his writings, with Bhai Nand Lal's, are the only words by anyone who was not himself a Guru that a Sikh sangat may sing alongside the Gurus' own sacred word (which includes both the Guru Granth Sahib and the tenth Guru's Dasam Granth). Tradition holds that he wished to be remembered not by any monument but only through the Guru's words; when he passed at Goindwal in 1636, Guru Hargobind Sahib performed his last rites himself, in the simplicity he had loved.
Source
Internet Archive · Sikh Digital Library (BaniDB text export)
Vaaran Bhai Gurdas Ji (traditional text), composed c. 1600–1630. Public Domain Mark 1.0. View the original ›
- 1 Var 1 · The Coming of Guru Nanak How the world lost its way through the ages — and how Guru Nanak came, like a sunrise, to light the darkness. 45 min read ›
- 2 Var 2 · The One Himself, in All Twenty everyday wonders — a mirror, a musician, one rain in many vessels, milk into butter — each showing the one Creator at work inside everything. 12 min read ›
- 3 Var 3 · The Guru and the Disciple The bond of Guru and Sikh — the priceless path, the line of the Gurus, the Guru's first words, the Mool Mantar, written out, and who a true Sikh really is. 17 min read ›
- 4 Var 4 · Humility How the low and the little become great — the humble earth, the small raindrop that becomes a pearl, the sesame pressed into fragrance — closing on Dhru, the child who found the changeless pole-star. 17 min read ›
- 5 Var 5 · The Company You Keep Birds of a feather flock together — and so the Gursikh seeks the sangat. The Gurmukh who faces the Guru and the manmukh who follows only his own mind, the true bride and the faithless, the swan and the crane. 17 min read ›
- 6 Var 6 · The Perfect Guru and the Sangat The Perfect True Guru and the daily life of the Gurmukh — rising in the still hour before dawn, the householder-saint like a lotus in water — including Bhai Gurdas's own reading of Japji's closing salok. 18 min read ›
- 7 Var 7 · The Gurmukh and the Numbers A garland strung on the numbers one to twenty — how the Gurmukh masters and transcends everything each number counts, from the pairs of the world to the boundless sky, ending: the Word is the Guru. 17 min read ›
- 8 Var 8 · How Great Is the Creator A litany of wonder — how great, how immeasurable, is the Creator and all He has made — surveying every path, caste, trade and condition of the world, and ending with the Gurmukh who becomes lowest of the low. 17 min read ›
- 9 Var 9 · The Discipleship of the Guru The razor-fine path of the Gurmukh — seeing the one Brahm in every heart, Guru and disciple becoming one, and the humble lessons of earth, water and tree. 14 min read ›
- 10 Var 10 · The Garland of Devotees The Bhagat Mala — twenty-three stories of God's lovers, from Dhru and Prahlad to Namdev, Kabir, Ravidas and Dhanna, each showing the one truth: the Lord cherishes his devotees and saves even the fallen. 23 min read ›
- 11 Var 11 · The Roll-Call of the Gursikhs After twelve pauris on the razor-fine path of the Gurmukh, Bhai Gurdas names the beloved Sikhs of each Guru, region by region — the historic roll that Bhai Mani Singh's Sikhan di Bhagat Mala would later expand. 26 min read ›
- 12 Var 12 · A Sacrifice to the Gursikhs Bhai Gurdas pours out his love for the Guru's Sikhs — I am a sacrifice to those who bow at the feet, live pure and humble, and carry the world across — set against the great gods who, for all their power, fell to their own pride. 16 min read ›
- 13 Var 13 · The Relish of Love The Gurmukh's love is a sweetness beyond all telling — like a mute tasting honey — richer than every fragrance, beauty and treasure of the world, closing on the light passing through the first six Gurus. 15 min read ›
- 14 Var 14 · Service The Guru is the honour of the honourless — and the whole of the path is loving service. The earth, the water, the tree, the cotton and the crushed sugarcane all teach it: bear everything, and give. 10 min read ›
- 15 Var 15 · Without the True Guru The True Guru is the true king, giver, banker and physician — and every worldly substitute for Him, from pilgrimage to the gold-making stone, fails the one who runs to it instead. 17 min read ›
- 16 Var 16 · As the Seed, So the Fruit The humble earth, water that seeks the low, the untouched lotus, the tree felled to ferry others, the boatman, the sandalwood, the sun — each teaches the Gurmukh selfless good, before the poem turns to the Creator who is beyond all reach. 17 min read ›
- 17 Var 17 · The False Friend A gallery of things that look fair but are hollow — the empty conch from the ocean, the frog in the lotus-pond, the heron's white 'trance,' the ladle in the feast — each an image of the false-hearted one who hears the Word but will not let it in. 17 min read ›
- 18 Var 18 · The Boundless Creator One Word spread out Onkar and a hundred thousand universes; the whole of creation rests in the Creator's awe and Command; He is endless yet pervades every hair and flower — and the Gurmukh's highway leads home to Him. 17 min read ›
- 19 Var 19 · Life, a Brief Guest-Stay This world is an inn for one night, a cattle-camp for four days, a feast you rise from, a Diwali lamp, a dream of kingship — and the Gurmukh lives through it as a passing guest, and so wins everything. 11 min read ›
- 20 Var 20 · The Lineage of Light The one Light passing through Guru Nanak to Guru Hargobind, and the daily life of the Gursikh it kindles — rising at dawn, serving, rejecting omens, winning the age like a well-played game. 10 min read ›
- 21 Var 21 · None Can Reach Him Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva, the Muslim masters and prophets and saints, all the clever and mighty of the world — none reach the Creator. Only humble loving devotion merges in Truth, and He is known by the Guru's grace alone. 10 min read ›
- 22 Var 22 · The Play of Creation The supportless Formless staged the whole of creation with one Word; through yoga and the marks of the holy man the Gurmukh returns to Him; Guru and disciple are one flame, one water; and the dust of the lotus-feet holds everything. 14 min read ›
- 23 Var 23 · The Dust of the Saints' Feet Even Vaman, Parasram, Ram and Krishna — all the great comings-down of God — fall short of the Guru's lotus-feet. It is the low and humble, not the high and proud, who are worthy of honour, and the devotees of every caste who are ferried across. 17 min read ›
- 24 Var 24 · In Every Home, Baba is Sung The fullest hymn to the Gurus: Guru Nanak the world-teacher, the visible master sung house to house with cymbal, drum and rebab — and the one Light passing through all six Gurus down to Hargobind. 19 min read ›
- 25 Var 25 · The Lowly Bear the Highest God looks not at caste: the devotees of every low birth — Namdev, Kabir, Ravidas, Sain, Dhanna, Sadhna — are the highest, and the humblest places yield the most precious things, from honey to silk to the jewel on the black snake's head. 16 min read ›
- 26 Var 26 · The True Emperor A sweeping vaar on the perfect Guru: Guru Nanak the true Emperor before whom even Babur's court bows, the true mint set against the worldly king's coin, the virtue of humility, the lineage of the Gursikhs, and — with dignity — those who broke from the true succession in pride. 29 min read ›
- 27 Var 27 · The Love of Master and Disciple The famous vaar that opens with the great lovers — Laila-Majnun, Sassi-Punnu, Sohni-Mahiwal, Ranjha-Heer — as images of the disciple's love for the Guru, each stanza closing on the refrain: dear is the love of master and disciple. 14 min read ›
- 28 Var 28 · Finer Than a Hair The great vaar on being a Sikh of the Guru: finer than a hair, sharper than the sword's edge, desireless, worth more than every rite, power and pilgrimage — and found only by losing the self, becoming a corpse in surrender at the Guru's door. 18 min read ›
- 29 Var 29 · The Holy Company How the Guru's teaching and the holy company remake a life — drawn through a counting of one to nine (the four boons, the five virtues, the six schools, the seven seas, the nine doors) — with every stanza closing on the holy company. 17 min read ›
- 30 Var 30 · Truth and Falsehood A sustained contrast of the Gurmukh's truth and the falsehood of the manmukh, who follows only his own mind: truth is gold, the diamond, the lion, the madder's fast colour; falsehood is glass, crystal, the deer, the fading safflower — and at the last, in the Court, truth wins and falsehood is exposed. 16 min read ›
- 31 Var 31 · Good and Evil How the good see good everywhere and the evil see evil — as the clear mirror reflects each as they are, and the Judge of the dead is judge to the sinner but sweet to the righteous. Imitate not the rare sinner who was saved; and remember the eternal contrast of Ram and Ravan. 16 min read ›
- 32 Var 32 · The Fool A gallery of the fool: blind before the mirror, obstinate as the stone that never soaks, trapped like the monkey by his own clenched fist, taking foul for fragrant like the fly — and even a pandit may be one. The closing wisdom: with a fool, silence is best. 16 min read ›
- 33 Var 33 · The Double-Faced The one torn between two masters — neither Hindu nor Muslim, neither Gurmukh nor manmukh, the one who follows only his own mind — jangled by the love of seeing two that bites like a two-mouthed snake; set against the Gursikh who follows one Guru and reconciles, as the needle joins what the scissors cut. 16 min read ›
- 34 Var 34 · Turning From the Guru The bemukh, the one who turns his face from the Guru: centreless as a guest welcomed in no house, everything of his reversed, blaming the grape as sour when he cannot reach it — and carrying the one fault that no pilgrimage or rite can ever wash away. 13 min read ›
- 35 Var 35 · The Slanderer and the Disguise The nindak who cannot stop slandering, and slanders even the Guru — undone as Harnakash, Ravan and Kans were; the ungrateful and the salt-betrayer; the covetous greed for the langar-offering; and the 'role' the Guru plays to test his Sikhs, whole through which are the rare, by the Guru's grace. 13 min read ›
- 36 Var 36 · The False Guru The deceiver, black-faced — the jackal dyed blue who plays king in the jungle till his own voice betrays him. Without merit none is a guru, and without the Guru there is no liberation, however one bathes, fasts, grows matted hair or keeps silence. It closes on a humble confession: I am a sinner; the True Guru is the Forgiver. 13 min read ›
- 37 Var 37 · The Priceless Birth The wonder of creation and the rare human body ferried across the ocean; the child's helplessness and the mother's boundless sacrifice against the ungrateful son; the One fire in all wood, the One milk in every cow — and, most beloved, Bhai Gurdas's own humility: there is none worse than me, the dog at the Guru's door. 25 min read ›
- 38 Var 38 · The Greatness of the Gursikh The Guru's Sikh, untouched by lust, anger, greed, attachment and ego, and higher than every faith, sect, rite, kingdom and heaven — for the fruit of joy, the relish of love, is a thing all their striving cannot reach by a single hair. 12 min read ›
- 39 Var 39 · The Sixth Master The Mool Mantar, the Guru's opening words, spelled out and the one Light carried down to Guru Hargobind, the lord-protector; a Sufi-toned allegory of the addicts — the Name-drunk lovers who drink the cup of love at the Emperor's court — and the dry ritualists who only bow; closing on the truth that no love of father, mother or all the gods equals the True Guru's. 20 min read ›
- 40 Var 40 · One Shop, One Banker The True Guru as the perfect Banker at whose one shop all the world trades — taking faults and selling virtue; without Him no salvation for Muslim master, prophet or sage; the Gursikh's daily highway of dawn, holy company and service; and the whole Varan's closing verse — the root of worship is the Guru's feet, and Waheguru merges in the heart. 18 min read ›