Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Clean on the inside, clean on the outside.
Those who are clean outside and clean inside do good deeds, guided by the Guru.
Not even a whisper of falsehood reaches them. Their hopes rest in the Truth.
Those who earn well with the jewel of this human life are the best of traders.
Nanak says: those whose minds are clean stay with the Guru forever.
Jee-ahu nirmal baahrahu nirmal — "pure within, pure without." Here the pair begun in verse 18 is completed, and the grammar of its purity matters: it is earned through practice — satgur tay karnee kamaanee — through the True Guru, they do deeds. Karnee (conduct, doing) is the bridge between inner and outer: the inside becomes visible as behavior, and behavior in turn steadies the inside. Integrity, in this verse, is literally integration — one life, not a public and private edition.
The economics follow: janam ratan jinee khati-aa bhalay say vanjaaray — those who have earned profit with the jewel of this birth are the excellent merchants. The trading metaphor (vanjaaraa — the traveling merchant of Punjabi economic life) runs throughout Gurbani and returns at verse 31 with full force ("the Lord is my capital; my mind is the merchant"). Here it prices the alternative in verse 18 precisely: same jewel, two traders — one gambles it (joo-ai haari-aa), one invests it. The stake is identical; only the trade differs.
Note the delicacy of koorh kee so-ay pahuchai naahee — not even the rumor of falsehood reaches them (so-ay: report, echo). Purity here is not defended by vigilance but rendered immune by fullness: hopes absorbed in Truth (mansaa sach samaanee) leave no vacancy for the false to occupy. The closing line gives the payoff in relationship rather than reward: sadaa raheh gur naalay — they abide with the Guru forever. The clean window and the light are no longer separate things.
Is there a place where your outside self and inside self don't quite match yet — and what one small honest act would bring them closer?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI