Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
A mind soaked in the One has the truest food and finest clothes there are.
To love the One's Name is to own horses and elephants — riches enough for anyone.
To hold the One steadily in mind is to rule great lands and enjoy every real delight.
Like a singer at the door, I ask only to stay near the One — a door I will never leave. This is the one longing of my mind and body: always, always, to reach toward the One.
The Vaar's closing Pauri turns the whole language of wealth inside out. Man rataa govind sang — a mind "dyed with the One" — is itself sach bhojan jorhay, "true food and clothing." Loving the Name is worth hastee ghorhay, "elephants and horses"; holding the One in mind is worth raaj milakh, "kingdoms and estates," and khusee-aa ghanee, "vast pleasures." Every treasure the world chases turns out to be already contained in the One. Then the poet's self-portrait, and it is humble and joyful at once: dhaadhee dar prabh mangnaa — "the dhaadhee (a minstrel who sings at the great one's door) asks at God's door" and dar kaday na chhorhay, "never leaves that door." The final line — nit prabh ka-u lorhay, "always longing for the One" — closes the entire Vaar not on an achievement but on a yearning, a hunger that is itself the joy. The tag sudh keechay is commonly rendered "let it be made correct."
If loving what's true is the greatest wealth, what would it look like to feel "rich" in that way today?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI