You Were Sent With Infinite Capital in Your Vault

Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa

Har raas mayree man vanjaaraa — "the Lord is my capital-stock; my mind is the merchant." Here the commercial picture reaches its full statement. Raas (raashi): a trader's working capital, the stock advanced to a traveling merchant (vanjaaraa) by a wealthy house. The capital is entrusted to the merchant, never earned by him; the merchant's whole art is to trade it well and return with profit. So too here: the Name is advanced to every human venture at birth (verse 30's Priceless, freely given); the mind's vocation is commerce with it. And crucially: satgur tay raas jaanee — the merchant only learns what his capital is through the True Guru. Most traders die never having opened the consignment.

The daily discipline: har har nit japihu jee-ahu laahaa khatihu dihaarhee — remember constantly, earn the laahaa (profit) daily (dihaarhee: day-wages, the laborer's daily take). Spiritual profit accrues by daily remembrance, not annual festivals. The Aasaa shabads' merchant of the Name (Shabad 97) is the same figure: wealth fire cannot burn, thieves cannot steal, disasters cannot touch.

The grace-clause holds as always: ayhu Dhan tinaa mili-aa jin har aapay bhaanaa — this wealth comes to those with whom He Himself is pleased. Between verse 19's excellent merchants (who invested the jewel of birth) and this verse's daily bookkeeping, Anand Sahib gives its whole economics: life as entrusted capital, remembrance as trade, peace as compound interest, and the Owner never far from the shop.