In a world fixated on optimization and time, we are often faced with the question of how we ought to spend our days and nights. We make checklists and schedules, we try to form 'healthy habits,' we pursue improvement and accumulation and success, and we compare ourselves to others in the process. But how might we spend this time wisely? What are we doing with our days and nights?

In Guru Arjan Sahib's composition, Din Raini (literally, 'Day and Night'), we are transported into the feeling of deep separation and pain that every seeker as a feminine-being has felt in relationship to IkOankar (the One) as the Husband. The atmosphere of this composition invites the tender and sensitive aspects of femininity inherent within all people to surface, no matter who we are, as we come to feel heartfelt yearning for IkOankar. This longing is part of our journey and ultimately draws us closer to the One we seek.

In Din Raini, we inhabit this aching, longing, and yearning as feminine-beings. We seek guidance from our fellow sisters—human-brides, seekers—and we are presented with a gentle nudge in the right direction. But first, Guru Arjan Sahib starts with an ardas, a supplication:

May I continue to serve my eternal Guru , may I continue to remember the All-Pervasive all days, all nights.
May I, having renounced self-centeredness, fall into the All-Pervasive's refuge, may I speak sweet words with my mouth.
I have been separated for many lives, unite me with the All-Pervasive, the Friend, O my relative, eternal Guru!

Let us linger on this ardas. Such simple asks and yet so difficult for us to do. But we need not do them alone. Guru Arjan Sahib gives us the words we may not have, to ask for the things we truly seek in our pain and our separation. In our service of the eternal Wisdom, we remember the All-Pervasive day and night. In our remembrance, we chip away at our self-centeredness. In that renunciation of the ego, we fall into the refuge of the One. We learn to speak sweetly.

Guru Arjan Sahib shows us that this kind of deep love and longing are born from the recognition that we have been separated for so long. They are born from a deep feeling that IkOankar is our friend and relative. This is a relationship that is ongoing and deep, even if we cannot feel its closeness—even when we are experiencing all the discomfort and sorrow of separation. In Guru Arjan Sahib's reflection, we are given the words to reflect ourselves:

I am separated due to my own actions; giving blame to anyone is not right.

Often in our pain and our sorrow, we may look for someone on whom to place blame. We may get defensive, and look for other reasons for our separation. But what have we done to address this pain? What have we done with our time, our days and nights?

It is as if the Guru is the experienced sister, and we are the sisters looking to learn. The experienced feminine-being shares the flavors of love and union with the One, so that her beloved sister-seeker may come to experience those flavors herself. The composition ends with another supplication, asking to feel the Grace, and again, giving us the words to call out to the One:

Nanak’s plea is: May I see the All-Pervasive, the Supreme Being, with my eyes.

IkOankar is the Sovereign, the Cause of causes, the All-Powerful. The final plea of Guru Arjan Sahib comes through invoking the name of Guru Nanak Sahib, identifying with his Guru. He asks to be graced such that he may see the presence of the all-pervasive One through his very eyes.

May we serve the One.
May we be in remembrance of the One, day and night.
May we be in the refuge of the One.
May we renounce the ego.
May we speak sweetly.
May we see the One with our eyes.
May the Wisdom-Guru guide us!