ਸਲੋਕ ਮਃ ੫ ॥
salok mehlaa 5.
Shalok, Fifth Mehl:
ਛਤੜੇ ਬਾਜਾਰ ਸੋਹਨਿ ਵਿਚਿ ਵਪਾਰੀਏ ॥
chhat-rhay baajaar sohan vich vapaaree-ai.
Your streets are covered with canopies; under them, the traders look beautiful.
ਵਖਰੁ ਹਿਕੁ ਅਪਾਰੁ ਨਾਨਕ ਖਟੇ ਸੋ ਧਣੀ ॥੧॥
vakhar hik apaar naanak khatay so Dhanee. ||1||
O Nanak, he alone is truly a banker, who buys the infinite commodity. ||1||
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
The market streets are covered with canopies, and the traders under them look fine.
Nanak says: the one who earns the single endless treasure is the wealthy one.
Spend your life buying the thing that never runs out.
The world is pictured as a busy, shaded marketplace, and the merchant image runs all through Gurbani. The wealthy one (dhanee) is the one who earns the single endless treasure (vakhar hik apaar), the Naam, rather than goods that pass. Underneath is a plain question: how will you spend the one life you are given?
A Question to Sit With
If your days were coins, what would you most want to spend them on?
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI
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