When Everything Still Feels Bitter
What happens when even the sweet things in life taste bitter?
What happens when even the sweet things in life taste bitter?
It’s hard to admit, but there are moments when nothing feels right. The day goes well enough, the people around us are kind, the chores get done. Yet, a low throb of unrest remains. A subtle ache under the surface. Not quite pain, not quite depression. Just a sense that something’s off. The food may be good, the conversation warm, but inside, we’re scanning for something else. Something more. And we don’t always know what we’re looking for.
In those moments, we might point to others. That one person who could’ve been more understanding. That situation that should’ve turned out differently. The way life seems to hold back the very thing we most need. We might keep blaming ourselves, or life, or fate, without noticing how this keeps us from meeting the moment we’re actually in.
Guru Arjan Sahib offers a sabad for those who feel this ache. It’s not about bypassing pain. It’s about what shifts when the taste of life itself changes—not because the world gets easier, but because something within us stops needing to fight it.
This sabad appears in Raag Nat Naaraayan, a musical mode that carries a devotional, prayerful tenderness, often evoking vulnerability in longing. Composed by Guru Arjan Dev Ji, the sabad is found on Ang 978 of Guru Granth Sahib and is presented in Du-Pade (two-line stanzas), a concise yet profound poetic form.
ੴ ਸਤਿਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥
IkOankar Satigur Prasad
By the grace of the Eternal, realized through the True Guru.
ਉਲਾਹਨੋ ਮੈ ਕਾਹੂ ਨ ਦੀਓ ॥
ulāhno mai kāhū na dīo
I do not blame anyone.
There is a startling softness here. The speaker begins not with what has gone wrong, but with what they’ve released: blame. Not a forced forgiveness, not a gritted surrender, but a natural letting go. As if, in some profound shift, blame has become unnecessary. Even when wronged, even when hurt, there is no longer a need to locate fault outside.
ਮਨ ਮੀਠ ਤੁਹਾਰੋ ਕੀਓ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
man mīṭh tuhāro kīo ॥੧॥ rahāo ॥
Your doing has become sweet to my mind. ||1|| Pause and reflect ||
This is the heart of the sabad. The center. The pivot. The word mīṭh—sweet—carries not just taste, but tenderness. When the bitterness of life softens, it’s not because situations changed. It’s because Your doing—the unfolding of Hukam, the flow of existence—has started to taste sweet. Not sugary or naive, but grounding, nourishing, resonant. This sweetness is not surface-level; it’s an inward taste of alignment. A taste that changes everything.
ਆਗਿਆ ਮਾਨਿ ਜਾਨਿ ਸੁਖੁ ਪਾਇਆ, ਸੁਨਿ ਸੁਨਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਤੁਹਾਰੋ ਜੀਓ ॥
āgiā mān jāni sukh pāiā, sun sun nām tuhāro jīo
By accepting and understanding the Command, I have found peace; hearing and hearing Your Nam, I live.
To accept is one thing. To understand is another. But to do both—willingly and deeply—is to dwell in an entirely different state of being. Peace isn’t passive here; it’s a felt experience that arises from inner agreement with the way things are. And it is sustained by the rhythm of Nam. A repeated hearing, continuous immersion. Not a one-time epiphany, but a practice of attuning again and again.
ਈਹਾਂ ਊਹਾ ਹਰਿ ਤੁਮ ਹੀ ਤੁਮ ਹੀ, ਇਹੁ ਗੁਰ ਤੇ ਮੰਤ੍ਰੁ ਦ੍ਰਿੜੀਓ ॥੧॥
īhāṅ ūhā har tum hī tum hī, ihu gur te mantru driṛhio ॥੧॥
Here and there, in this world and the next, it is only You, only You. This mantra I have ingrained through the Guru.
What shifts when the only presence we begin to notice is You. That One Force, that Divine Constant? Not as an idea, but as an actual lived mantra. Not memorized, but ingrained. It is rooted deep through the presence of the Guru, through Wisdom that doesn’t just instruct, but transforms perception. Suddenly, separation fades. The world doesn’t shrink—it expands, because the thread of Oneness runs through it all.
ਜਬ ਤੇ ਜਾਨਿ ਪਾਈ ਏਹ ਬਾਤਾ, ਤਬ ਕੁਸਲ ਖੇਮ ਸਭ ਥੀਓ ॥
jab te jān pāī eh bātā, tab kusal khem sabh thīo
Since I understood this, I have been in total ease and well-being.
Ease isn’t about comfort. It’s about a sense of being met. When this insight lands—not just intellectually, but viscerally—everything settles. Not because there are no storms, but because the storm no longer defines the self. Kusal khem—not just wellbeing, but a flourishing wholeness—emerges. Not as an achievement, but as a byproduct of perceiving the Real rightly.
ਸਾਧਸੰਗਿ ਨਾਨਕ ਪਰਗਾਸਿਓ, ਆਨ ਨਾਹੀ ਰੇ ਬੀਓ ॥੨॥੧॥੨॥
sādh-sang Nānak pargāsio, ān nāhī re bīo ॥੨॥੧॥੨॥
In the company of the Wisdom-centered, O Nanak, I have awakened; there is no other, none at all.
Pargāsio—illumined, awakened, lit up from within. This awakening doesn’t happen in isolation. It arises in Sadh Sangat or the company of those who live oriented toward the Guru-Wisdom. And when that illumination occurs, duality dissolves. There is no other. Not as dogma, but as a lived dissolution of the “me vs. you,” “right vs. wrong,” “sweet vs. bitter.” It all becomes One continuous presence.
This sabad does not demand that we become peaceful. It simply describes what becomes possible when the sweetness of divine presence seeps into our being. The shift is not forced; it is felt. And it is the Guru’s doing, not ours.
Returning to those restless moments, we can ask: what if nothing needs to change for sweetness to emerge? What if even the bitter moments, when held gently, begin to reveal their nectar?
Guru Arjan Sahib lived this wisdom not in abstraction, but through fire—both metaphorical and literal. His presence in this sabad is not one of denial, but of profound attunement. He invites us not to escape our reality, but to let go of the stories that keep us fighting it. To taste the sweetness in what is. Even when it doesn’t look sweet.
So maybe the next time things feel a little off, we don’t need to figure it all out. We can sit quietly. Listen to the breath. Listen to Nam. Recall this line: “man mīṭh tuhāro kīo”—You’ve made my mind taste Your doing as sweet.
And we can ask: What if sweetness is already here, waiting to be tasted? Can I taste this moment as sweet not because it is perfect, but because I am present to it?
Let that warmth linger. Let it remind you: the Divine doesn’t always come wrapped in bliss. Sometimes, it comes in the bittersweet. And even there it can be delicious.
Listen to this shabad by Bhai Lakwinder Singh
Principal Sukhwant Singh
Bhai Rai Singh:
Bibi Tarnveer Kaur: