Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
Wherever people keep the One alive in their hearts, that place is rich — even a bare patch of dirt feels like a palace of gold. And wherever the One is forgotten, even a crowded city feels empty and dead inside. It isn't the building that makes a place beautiful. It's whether love is awake there.
This opening line resets what we think "wealth" means. We usually measure a place by what's in it — gold, mansions, busy streets. Guru Arjan flips it: the only thing that makes a place alive is whether naam — the living presence of the One — is held awake in the people there. A desert where hearts remember becomes a golden mansion. A glittering city where hearts have forgotten is "ujaarhee" — a wasteland.
Notice this is not really about geography at all. The "place" is wherever you are standing right now, including the place inside you. A heart with naam awake in it is rich no matter what it owns. A heart that has forgotten is poor no matter how full its hands are. This is sach versus jhooth — the real versus the unreal. Buildings and gold are kachaa (they fade); the aliveness of remembrance is the only thing that lasts.
As the opening line of this shabad, this sets the test that every following verse will apply: not "what does this person have?" but "is the One awake in them?"
Think of a place that feels truly alive to you. What is actually making it feel that way?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI