Dialogues in Dharma: Darshan Daykh Jeeva Gur Tayraa

At our July 2026, Dialogues in Dharma session, we focused on SS Gurprasad Kaur Khalsa’s favorite Shabad – Darshan Daykh Jeeva Gur Tayraa. “Darshan” can be defined as a sacred sight or vision, spiritual realization, and/or physical presence of a holy person.

After being introduced:

Gurprasad Kaur Khalsa has been blessed to walk the spiritual path of Sikh Dharma for more than 41 years, by the grace of Guru Ram Das ji and through the guidance and teachings of the Siri Singh Sahib ji, Yogi Bhajan. Besides being a seeker of Truth, she is a Sikh Dharma minister and Kundalini Yoga teacher, a retired schoolteacher and a mother, and gets great joy out of singing and playing Gurbani kirtan in the Guru’s court. She currently resides at Hacienda de Guru Ram Das in Espanola with her husband Kirtan Singh and dog Luna.

Gurprasad Kaur then shared inspirations around this Shabad, sung a beautiful Kirtan version for the group, shared a line-by-line translation, and her powerful and inspiring experiences with the Shabad! She facilitated a discussion around different key portions of the shabad.

View a Recording of this Session:

Gurprasad Kaur was asked to speak about going past the struggle of ego and into complete trust:

We’re all on this journey, and the journey is individual and universal. And for me, all I can do is speak about my own personal journey. Every part of it is perfect and necessary and vital. And every part gives you something you wouldn’t have gotten any other way. We are our own harshest critics. And I’ve had many struggles in my life. And we fight against it, and that’s a stage, and there’s no way of avoiding that. I think we’ve all gone through this, we’ve all been there.
How do you get the faith? It’s Guru’s Grace, as there’s nothing we really do in a way. But there’s also “keep up.” At times I was so in my pain, I gave up several times along the way in the past, and when we’re being consumed by pain, it becomes our identity. We do this with our pain, like a race to the bottom. But if you can keep up, keep practicing, and keep chanting.
Keep going through that dark night of the soul. And at the other side, we realize that pain made us who we are and was vital to our journey. It can carve you out and hollowed out, and in the end, the only place to go is up, and it allows us to experience more joy in the end.
And if you can get up after being brought to your knees by agony, you experience victory of the spirit through love. Then you’re blessed, and you get that, and then you try to help others through their struggle when you’re on the other side. It’s Guru’s Grace, and we all have to go through our own stuff.

Leading up to the Event, Gurpasad Kaur Shared This:

“I love shabads with the concept of Darshan. Darshan Daykh Jeeva Gur Tayraa is such a shabad. ‘I live for your Blessed Vision, O Guru. It brings my life to fulfillment, O my Lord.’
I have a history with this shabad, hearing it, playing it and listening to it. Its sound current is very satisfying, its meaning is supremely uplifting, and it has my name in it! Gur Prasaad kinai virlai jaatay, ‘By the Guru’s Grace, rare is the one who understands You.’
My relationship with Darshan Daykh got cemented when I heard it chanted at Keshghar Sahib by the Sadh Sangat there, alternating between men and women. And then I heard it at Darbar Sahib and realized that Asa di Var is always paused and a shabad is played with the concept and mention of Darshan right before the Prakash of the Siri Guru Granth Sahib ji for the day, the Ultimate Darshan for a Gursikh. It’s been a love affair with this shabad ever since.”

View the words, translation and musical versions of this Shabad.

About Gurprasad Kaur

Besides being a seeker of Truth, she is a Sikh Dharma minister and Kundalini Yoga teacher, a retired schoolteacher and a mother, and gets great joy out of singing and playing Gurbani kirtan in the Guru’s court. She currently resides at Hacienda de Guru Ram Das in Espanola with her husband Kirtan Singh and dog Luna.