Wake up, sleepers — the traveling merchant is leaving.
The Arc
A ten-verse Ashtapadee in the Kaafee mode, built entirely around impermanence and the question of what travels. The opening simile sets the frame: the world is a shepherd's seasonal pasture, and building here as if forever is "practicing falsehood" (verse 1). The Pause rings the alarm — wake up, the merchant-soul's caravan is departing. Verses 2–4 strip the illusions one by one: the mock permission to build "if you will stay forever"; the mourning verses (the Lord is and shall always be; the dead cannot hear the wailing; who will mourn for you?). Verse 5 sets the limit of self-effort — only the One who caused the sleep can wake the sleeper; the one who knows the true home does not sleep. Verses 6–9 rebuild life as true commerce: no wealth travels (see, reflect, understand); deal in true merchandise; plant Truth in the soil of dharma so the profit goes with you; and finally grace — Mercy brings the Guru, and then one chants, hears, and deals only in the Naam. Verse 10 signs the ledger with surrender: profit and loss are the way of the world; whatever pleases His Will is glory.
Key Vocabulary
Kaafee — a musical mode/style marking in the raag heading, used for several Aasaa compositions.
Jaag lehu — "wake up!": the Pause's doubled alarm; sleep as life on autopilot is a recurring Aasaa image.
Sach / dharat dharam — the seed of Truth sown in the soil of dharmic, honest living (verse 8): the hymn's farming economy.
Vanaj / vaapaaree — trade and the trader: life as a business journey; the true merchant is defined as the one whose profits travel with him.
Themes and Cross-Connections
This hymn fuses two of the project's running images — the merchant of the Name and the sleep of Maya — into a single sustained parable, in Guru Nanak's blunt, empirical register: see, reflect, understand rather than believe-because-told. The mourning verses extend the earlier Aasaa teaching on hollow mourning (the funeral verses among the Mehl 5 shabads): grief performed for the living audience belongs to falsehood; the dead are honored by remembrance and amended lives. Verse 5 holds the grace-and-effort balance exactly where the upside-down vessel image left it: the shout can call the sleeper, but only the One wakes him. The closing surrender — profit and loss as the world's way, His pleasure as glory — is the sweet-Will theme ("Your Will is sweet") arriving in a merchant's ledger-book.
For Raag Aasaa
Aasaa grounds hope in a Giver, not in holdings. Here that teaching gets its business plan: hold the season lightly, mourn honestly but briefly, stock the cargo that crosses, and let the ledger's last line read — whatever pleases His Will is glory for me.
Wake up, sleepers — the traveling merchant is leaving.
The Arc
A ten-verse Ashtapadee in the Kaafee mode, built entirely around impermanence and the question of what travels. The opening simile sets the frame: the world is a shepherd's seasonal pasture, and building here as if forever is "practicing falsehood" (verse 1). The Pause rings the alarm — wake up, the merchant-soul's caravan is departing. Verses 2–4 strip the illusions one by one: the mock permission to build "if you will stay forever"; the mourning verses (the Lord is and shall always be; the dead cannot hear the wailing; who will mourn for you?). Verse 5 sets the limit of self-effort — only the One who caused the sleep can wake the sleeper; the one who knows the true home does not sleep. Verses 6–9 rebuild life as true commerce: no wealth travels (see, reflect, understand); deal in true merchandise; plant Truth in the soil of dharma so the profit goes with you; and finally grace — Mercy brings the Guru, and then one chants, hears, and deals only in the Naam. Verse 10 signs the ledger with surrender: profit and loss are the way of the world; whatever pleases His Will is glory.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
This hymn fuses two of the project's running images — the merchant of the Name and the sleep of Maya — into a single sustained parable, in Guru Nanak's blunt, empirical register: see, reflect, understand rather than believe-because-told. The mourning verses extend the earlier Aasaa teaching on hollow mourning (the funeral verses among the Mehl 5 shabads): grief performed for the living audience belongs to falsehood; the dead are honored by remembrance and amended lives. Verse 5 holds the grace-and-effort balance exactly where the upside-down vessel image left it: the shout can call the sleeper, but only the One wakes him. The closing surrender — profit and loss as the world's way, His pleasure as glory — is the sweet-Will theme ("Your Will is sweet") arriving in a merchant's ledger-book.
For Raag Aasaa
Aasaa grounds hope in a Giver, not in holdings. Here that teaching gets its business plan: hold the season lightly, mourn honestly but briefly, stock the cargo that crosses, and let the ledger's last line read — whatever pleases His Will is glory for me.
Last updated: 2026-07-03