Raag Bhairao, Shabad (four stanzas with rahau), Bhagat Kabir
The Naam of the One — this alone is my wealth. I neither hoard it nor sell it.
The Arc
Think about what you would call your wealth. Make the Naam, the One's presence in your heart, your treasure. You never knot it away in a drawer or trade it to pay for lunch. Let it be your field and your harvest. Give the One your love, and rest in the One's shelter. Let the Naam be your savings, and lean on nothing else. Let it be your family, your brother, the friend who stays with you to the very end. Money and things may be all around you. The person who stays free inside them is the one worth looking up to. At the centre, the Rahao: the Naam of the One is my wealth, never hoarded and never sold.
Key Vocabulary
Dhan — wealth. Naa-o / Naam — the Naam, the felt presence of the One. Gaanth — a knot (as in coins knotted in cloth); gaanth na baadhau = I do not hoard. Poonjee — capital, a merchant's stake. Maa-i-aa — the world of wealth and appearances, here re-claimed as the Naam itself. Saran — sanctuary, shelter. Udaas — unattached, unclutched (not sad; inwardly free). Daas — servant.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The hymn belongs to the great current of naam-dhan, the Naam-as-wealth, that runs through the whole scripture; the Gurus sing it too. Kabir's distinctive move is to borrow the exact language of the marketplace he lived beside — he was a working weaver, not a monk — and turn every commercial term toward the One. It also connects to the recurring GGS insight that nothing material accompanies us at the end (see the very next shabad, on naked coming and going): here the counter-treasure is named first, before the emptiness of the rest is exposed.
For Raag Bhairao
Bhairao is a bright, awake, morning-facing raag, and this opener sets its Bhagat section ringing with plain confidence rather than longing — a settled declaration of what one owns. It is fitting that the section that will go on to level caste, question ritual, and hold Hindu and Muslim as one, begins by quietly redefining wealth itself.
Hukumnama
Subject: Make the Naam your treasure Preview: coins knotted in a cloth, a field and its crop, a merchant's savings, a brother, a friend at the end.
Today: Think about what you would call your wealth. Make the Naam, the One's presence in your heart, your treasure. You never knot it away in a drawer or trade it to pay for lunch. Let it be your field and your harvest. Give the One your love, and rest in the One's shelter. Let the Naam be your savings, and lean on nothing else. Let it be your family, your brother, the friend who stays with you to the very end. Money and things may be all around you. The person who stays free inside them is the one worth looking up to.
The Naam of the One is your wealth, to live from and never to hoard or sell.
For today: Share something you love today, a song, a snack or a joke, and watch it grow by giving.
The Naam of the One — this alone is my wealth. I neither hoard it nor sell it.
The Arc
Think about what you would call your wealth. Make the Naam, the One's presence in your heart, your treasure. You never knot it away in a drawer or trade it to pay for lunch. Let it be your field and your harvest. Give the One your love, and rest in the One's shelter. Let the Naam be your savings, and lean on nothing else. Let it be your family, your brother, the friend who stays with you to the very end. Money and things may be all around you. The person who stays free inside them is the one worth looking up to. At the centre, the Rahao: the Naam of the One is my wealth, never hoarded and never sold.
Key Vocabulary
Dhan — wealth. Naa-o / Naam — the Naam, the felt presence of the One. Gaanth — a knot (as in coins knotted in cloth); gaanth na baadhau = I do not hoard. Poonjee — capital, a merchant's stake. Maa-i-aa — the world of wealth and appearances, here re-claimed as the Naam itself. Saran — sanctuary, shelter. Udaas — unattached, unclutched (not sad; inwardly free). Daas — servant.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The hymn belongs to the great current of naam-dhan, the Naam-as-wealth, that runs through the whole scripture; the Gurus sing it too. Kabir's distinctive move is to borrow the exact language of the marketplace he lived beside — he was a working weaver, not a monk — and turn every commercial term toward the One. It also connects to the recurring GGS insight that nothing material accompanies us at the end (see the very next shabad, on naked coming and going): here the counter-treasure is named first, before the emptiness of the rest is exposed.
For Raag Bhairao
Bhairao is a bright, awake, morning-facing raag, and this opener sets its Bhagat section ringing with plain confidence rather than longing — a settled declaration of what one owns. It is fitting that the section that will go on to level caste, question ritual, and hold Hindu and Muslim as one, begins by quietly redefining wealth itself.
Hukumnama
Subject: Make the Naam your treasure Preview: coins knotted in a cloth, a field and its crop, a merchant's savings, a brother, a friend at the end.
Today: Think about what you would call your wealth. Make the Naam, the One's presence in your heart, your treasure. You never knot it away in a drawer or trade it to pay for lunch. Let it be your field and your harvest. Give the One your love, and rest in the One's shelter. Let the Naam be your savings, and lean on nothing else. Let it be your family, your brother, the friend who stays with you to the very end. Money and things may be all around you. The person who stays free inside them is the one worth looking up to.
The Naam of the One is your wealth, to live from and never to hoard or sell.
For today: Share something you love today, a song, a snack or a joke, and watch it grow by giving.