february 2026
dear friends,
thank you for visiting the mail club ਖਜਾਨਾ/ khajana - a place for me to very casually drop extra resources, more thoughts, links, and a monthly playlist!
a ਖਜਾਨਾ/ khajana is a collection of treasures, so please enjoy these little extra things i want to share with you.
first, the playlist:
this month, i was really hyperfocused on a few shabads so the playlist is short, but it won’t always be. this first few shabads are just different renditions of the same shabad, the shabad that this month’s artwork was inspired by. i wanted to really meditate on this shabad and painted based on the feelings it gave me, both from listening to it over and over again, and also from doing some gurbani veechar on it.
to make up for the playlist being short this month, i’d like to share my old painting playlist with you. this is my longtime playlist and one i that still add shabads i’m vibing with that give me good energy to paint with. i hope you’ll vibe with it too! please send me keertan reccs if you have any that you think i’d like, that is truly one of my biggest love languages.
the shabad that this month’s artwork was inspired by:
(you can scroll in this block below:)
if you want to engage with the shabad in full screen, you can view the gurmukhi and a basic english translation of the shabad. one mail club, maybe i’ll go on my soapbox about all the things i don’t love about the standardized translations we have available to us, but not this month.
as i get more used to mail club and build more capacity to do even more, i’d like to move towards doing my own well-researched translations/ interpretations and i’ll share them with you in the online resource khajana. for now, this is great. i encourage you to change the display options and explore other translations by other authors. my friend i referred to in my letter showed me the punjabi pad arth translation option, and i found that quite helpful with translations of specific words so that you can come to your own personal interpretation of the line.
*a note: i will be limiting the gurbani that i share written out in mail club physical pieces. physical writing of gurbani always much be treated with utmost respect, so i will be limiting gurbani (written in the original gurmukhi script) to the artwork only as i know you will treat the artwork with respect, and i will refrain from including it in the letters so that you don’t have to be careful with those. i will only include transliterated lines for reference in letters, and will share the whole shabad properly here for you to read along.
next, the magnetic bookmark.
this was inspired by translation of a line in the zafarnama. the letter of victory that ਗੁਰੂ ਗੌਬਿੰਦ ਸਿਘ ਜੀ / guru gobind singh ji penned in defiance of the tyrannous mughal ruler aurangzeb. here is the excerpt:
the zafarnama was penned in farsi (persian) so you can see the original persian & a transliteration on the left.
to give this some context, guru gobind singh ji is directly addressing the tyrant aurangzeb here and, while describing the atrocities he has committed, he says this (above), and then he continues on to say this next part:
first of all, bars.
like, go off guru sahib.
he tells aurangzeb how important it is to uphold the truth and how this in itself is worship. then ਗੁਰੂ ਗੌਬਿੰਦ ਸਿਘ ਜੀ goes on to say, but you didn’t care for the truth, and only have lied, oppressed, and killed innocent people. you are not someone who knows the divine master, and even with your incredible wealth, the divine will never accept you
he later writes that, your chances to change your tune have run out. you’ve been given enough trust to do the right thing, and now this is the beginning of your downfall.
if you’re interested in reading the whole zafarnama, here is this link to this translation that was made into a book by navtej s. sarna. i think it’s a great and necessary read, and a resource i’m grateful to have in my home to look back to. (sorry to give an amazon link, i couldn’t find it available anywhere else)
lastly, a glossary of words from the letter. (just in case you need it)
sikhi: the sikh word to describe the faith. the “ism” part of sikhism is colonial influence.
gurbani: sikh scripture that includes writings in 8 different languages/dialects and is written in poetry.
sangat: community that takes you towards the divine and the truth, and holds you accountable to do that same. think, village.
guru gobind singh ji: the tenth sikh spiritual master.
shaheed: martyr, someone who died in sacrifice, in the name of justice or for the greater good.
seva: selfless service, a core part of sikhi.
ardaas: a humble prayer done every day by sikhs in which we remember the gurus and the sacrifices of countless sikhs in the name of sikhi, and ask for blessings from the divine for ourselves and for the wellbeing of the world and all of humanity.
feel free to ask if any words in the letter are mysterious to you, i’m happy to add any words to the khajana as we go!
until next month,
harleen
