The mind is a temple with an infinite treasure inside; after all the seeking, the priceless jewel turns out to have been home within you the whole time.
The Arc
Pauri 0 opens the central image — the mind is a temple, the body its wall, and an infinite treasure with a great merchant dwells within; who is the trader wise enough to deal there? The Rahao (Pauri 1) names the rare one who trades in the jewel of the Name and feeds on nectar. Pauris 2 and 3 are strings of earnest seeking questions — how to please the One, how to drop "mine and yours," how to reach the Great One's home and be called inside, who could guide us there. Pauri 4 answers everything: searching and searching, the jewel was found in one's own true home within, shown by grace when the great merchant joined us to the source.
Key Vocabulary
man mandar: the mind as temple, the body its wall — the sacred housed within
naam ratan: the jewel of the Name — the one treasure worth trading in
nij ghar: one's own true home, deep within — where the jewel is finally found
mayraa-tayraa: "mine and yours" — the ego-division dropped as the price of the trade
Themes and Cross-Connections
The merchant-and-jewel metaphor runs the whole shabad, turning the spiritual search into an inward trade. The resolution — khojat khojat nij ghar paa-i-aa ("seeking and seeking, found in my own home") — is one of Gurbani's core insights: the divine treasure was never elsewhere; seeking outside was the long way to what was always within. Dropping mayraa-tayraa (Pauri 2) is the practical face of Ik Onkar — the dissolving of separateness. And the finding comes by grace (kar kirpaa jab maylay), never by the search alone.
For Raag Gauree
Gauree Gwaarayree's reflective, inward mood is ideally suited to this shabad of interior searching. The raag's contemplative character carries the run of seeking questions and lands naturally on the quiet, homecoming answer — the treasure within.
The mind is a temple with an infinite treasure inside; after all the seeking, the priceless jewel turns out to have been home within you the whole time.
The Arc
Pauri 0 opens the central image — the mind is a temple, the body its wall, and an infinite treasure with a great merchant dwells within; who is the trader wise enough to deal there? The Rahao (Pauri 1) names the rare one who trades in the jewel of the Name and feeds on nectar. Pauris 2 and 3 are strings of earnest seeking questions — how to please the One, how to drop "mine and yours," how to reach the Great One's home and be called inside, who could guide us there. Pauri 4 answers everything: searching and searching, the jewel was found in one's own true home within, shown by grace when the great merchant joined us to the source.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The merchant-and-jewel metaphor runs the whole shabad, turning the spiritual search into an inward trade. The resolution — khojat khojat nij ghar paa-i-aa ("seeking and seeking, found in my own home") — is one of Gurbani's core insights: the divine treasure was never elsewhere; seeking outside was the long way to what was always within. Dropping mayraa-tayraa (Pauri 2) is the practical face of Ik Onkar — the dissolving of separateness. And the finding comes by grace (kar kirpaa jab maylay), never by the search alone.
For Raag Gauree
Gauree Gwaarayree's reflective, inward mood is ideally suited to this shabad of interior searching. The raag's contemplative character carries the run of seeking questions and lands naturally on the quiet, homecoming answer — the treasure within.
Last updated: 2026