Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The One is powerful beyond limit, immense, high above all, endless. And its Name is like a storehouse overflowing with every treasure there is. At the very start of things, all the way through the middle, and right to the end — it's the One, the whole time. Nothing else even comes close to standing beside it.
After the previous verse cured fear by showing the One is everywhere in space ("antar baahar"), this verse cures a different anxiety by showing the One is everywhere in time: "aad ant madh" — beginning, end, and middle. Whatever you face, the One was already there before it started, will be there after it ends, and is there right now in the middle of it. There is no moment that falls outside the One's presence. So there is no situation you can be dropped into where you are truly on your own. This is deep reassurance: the story you're living has the One on every page, not just the first and last.
"Na-o nidh naam bhare bhandaara" — the naam is a storehouse overflowing with the nine treasures. In old Indian imagery, the "nine treasures" meant all the wealth in the world. Guru Arjan says: forget chasing those scattered riches one by one; the naam already contains all of them. The thing people spend their whole lives running after — security, abundance, enough — is sitting inside the remembrance of the One, available now. This is a quiet revolution in what "rich" means, the same theme that opened this whole section back in Shabad 35.
"Doojaa lavai na laa-ee" — nothing else even comes close. This is Ik Onkar as a value statement, not just a fact. It's not only that there's one reality; it's that nothing you might put next to it — money, fame, being right, winning — can even stand in the same room as it. When you've genuinely tasted the One, the competition simply ends. The shabad is steadily moving you from "remembering helps" toward "there is truly nothing else worth wanting."
People chase many treasures — money, popularity, being the best. If one thing already contained everything those promise, would you still chase the others? Why do we anyway?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI