ਚੈਨ

What does chain mean in Punjabi? Chain (ਚੈਨ) means rest, ease and peace of mind. It is the settled feeling that comes when nothing is troubling you, and the dictionaries give it a whole family of calm: comfort, ease, relief, rest, repose, quiet, calm, peace and tranquillity, all carried by this one short word.

What does chain mean in Punjabi?

Chain is spoken about the body and the heart together. A tired person sits down chain naal, at ease, and sleeps chain naal, peacefully. When worry lifts, people say chain pai gaya, rest has come, I feel at peace now. The heart has its own fixed phrase, dil da chain, the peace of the heart, which Rekhta's verse examples also use: a lost dil ka chain is the oldest way in poetry to say that rest has gone and longing has taken its place.

Where does the word chain come from?

Rekhta Dictionary gives the origin of chain as Sanskrit. Its Urdu gloss lists the same circle of meanings, qaraar, sukuun, raahaat and aaraam, settledness, calm, relief and rest, and then says the quiet part out loud: chain is the opposite of restlessness and bechaini. Rekhta also records a second dictionary sense in Urdu usage, a word, a saying or a promise, but in Punjabi daily speech chain is heard in its first sense only, as rest and peace of mind.

What is the opposite of chain?

Its opposite is bechaini (ਬੇਚੈਨੀ), restlessness, and the pair is built as a pair: put be-, without, in front of chain and the rest is gone, leaving the bechain person awake, waiting and unsettled. Around chain stand its calm neighbours, shanti (ਸ਼ਾਂਤੀ), peace, and sukh (ਸੁਖ), ease and happiness. Chain is the most personal of the three: it is not peace in the world, but rest inside one person, the moment the mind stops turning and settles.