Almost everything is left behind — gather the one treasure that travels with you.
The Arc
Trade imagery opens the shabad: only the Name’s cargo lasts, so sing the praises, earn the profit, and stay unstained in the world’s poison. Verse one shows the fruit — contentment, the jewel of human life won, the wandering ended. The close names how it all begins: grace arrives first as good company, and dyes the self in the color of the One’s love.
Key Vocabulary
khayp — a merchant’s cargo.
laabh / nidh dhan — profit / treasure.
bikhai maahi alayp — untouched amid poison (the lotus).
ratan janam — the jewel of human birth.
lagaa... rang — dyed in the color.
Themes and Cross-Connections
The merchant metaphor and the unstained lotus sit together: live fully in the world, yet keep the root clean. Contentment (santokh) replaces craving, and love is pictured as a dye soaked all the way through the cloth — not worn on the surface.
For Raag Saarang
The lasting merchandise answers the raag’s thirst: what the heart truly wants is the one cargo that survives the journey.
Almost everything is left behind — gather the one treasure that travels with you.
The Arc
Trade imagery opens the shabad: only the Name’s cargo lasts, so sing the praises, earn the profit, and stay unstained in the world’s poison. Verse one shows the fruit — contentment, the jewel of human life won, the wandering ended. The close names how it all begins: grace arrives first as good company, and dyes the self in the color of the One’s love.
Key Vocabulary
Themes and Cross-Connections
The merchant metaphor and the unstained lotus sit together: live fully in the world, yet keep the root clean. Contentment (santokh) replaces craving, and love is pictured as a dye soaked all the way through the cloth — not worn on the surface.
For Raag Saarang
The lasting merchandise answers the raag’s thirst: what the heart truly wants is the one cargo that survives the journey.