Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You are my True One, my true wealth.
Plant the true treasure of the Name firmly in me — I am Your trader, carrying Your goods.
I serve the True One and deal in the True One, telling of Your wonders that are beyond compare.
Those who serve with love come to meet You, made beautiful by the Guru's word.
You, my True One, cannot be grasped by the mind — yet through the Guru's word, You become known.
A short, warm Pauri built on a merchant metaphor that runs through much of Gurbani: the human being as a vanjaaraa — a trader carrying the goods of the Name through the marketplace of life. The prayer sach poojee naam drirh-aa-ay — "plant the true capital of the Name firmly in me" — asks not for possessions but for the one wealth that lasts. The verse holds a lovely paradox in its last line: the One is alakh, "beyond grasping" — the mind cannot pin it down — and yet gur sabad lakhaaray, "through the word it becomes known." What thought cannot catch, love and the living word can reveal. It is knowable not by figuring it out, but by giving yourself to it.
If your life were a trip to a marketplace, what is the one "treasure" you'd most want to carry home?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI