Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa
You made the earth. You made the two great lamps — the sun and the moon — to light it.
You created fourteen worlds — places where Your business actually runs. The whole universe is Your marketplace.
The Lord gives His profit to those who become Gurmukh — those turned toward the teaching.
The Messenger of Death cannot touch those who drink in the True Amrit. They are protected.
And here is the beautiful part: they don't just save themselves. They save their whole family. And everyone who follows in their footsteps.
Fourteen worlds as marketplace
Chauddā bavan kī'e vandaj, tis vich vāpar vartāi'ā — "You created the fourteen world-shops, in which Your Business is transacted." The cosmos as a marketplace: the trading of spiritual goods runs through all fourteen worlds of classical Indian cosmology. The Vaar consistently uses commercial metaphors — the merchant, the cargo, the profit — and here extends that frame to the universe itself. Creation is the Lord's marketplace, and the Gurmukh's task is to trade wisely in it.
"They themselves are saved, along with their family"
Āp tarai kul udhāre, sāthī siu saṅgāti — "they themselves are saved, along with their family, and all those who follow them are saved as well." This is one of the most remarkable claims in the Vaar: the Gurmukh's liberation is not individual. The spiritual profit of a genuine seeker ripples outward — to family, to community, to anyone who follows in their path.
The image is of a merchant whose successful journey opens the trade route for everyone who comes after. The Gurmukh is not just saving themselves. They are the pioneers who make the crossing possible for others.
Amrit — the True Ambrosial Nectar
Sach amrit pī'ē — "those who drink in the True Ambrosial Nectar." Amrit is the nectar of immortality in Indian tradition. Here it is the True Amrit — the Naam itself, experienced as the living presence of the divine. Those who drink this are beyond the Messenger of Death's jurisdiction.
*Think of someone whose life opened a path that you later walked. What did their journey make possible for you?*
Translation by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa·How we use AI