Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa, Vahiguru ji ki Fatih!

We spend our lives in accumulation—seeking more, moving the goalposts, feeding the desire for more wealth, more assets, more success. In this race toward accumulation, we exhaust ourselves. We may reach a point where we wonder what it is we are chasing, and whether it is worth it.

This week, we turn to Anand Sahib (Song of Bliss). In the thirty-first pauri (stanza), Guru Amardas Sahib invokes Hari (the 1-Light), a divine name of IkOankar (the One), and delivers a powerful declaration:

Hari is my capital, my mind is the trader.
We pause.

In our frenzied worldly accumulation, the Guru’s words cut through the noise: the 1-Light is both the capital and the wealth. And who is conducting this trade? The mind is the trader engaging in transactions with this priceless wealth. This statement is repeated and emphasized, its clarity echoing with the conviction that the 1-Light, the All-Pervasive, the Fear-Eliminator, liberates and removes suffering. We spend our lives seeking wealth, and the Guru says, the One is the wealth.

How can we come to this realization and live it? How can we reorient ourselves toward this accumulation, toward this capital?

Recite ‘Hari-Hari’ every day from the heart, earn profit every day.
This wealth has been found by those, giving to whom has been pleasing to Hari by Own-Self.

Guru Amardas Sahib’s instruction is simple: remember the 1-Light within our very beings, deep in our hearts, every day—in every moment—to earn and collect this profit daily. This is the trade; the mind can become the trader of that invaluable wealth. This invaluable wealth is not bestowed randomly; it is a gift to those who become pleasing to the 1-Light.

We may question.
Why haven’t we received this invaluable wealth yet?

Perhaps it is because we have not yet made this devoted practice our own. Perhaps because we have not yet entered into a state of ceaseless remembrance of the 1-Light. It is when our very essence reaches such a state that the 1-Light continues to bestow us with gifts. It is in this state that we receive true wealth.

We reflect: Who possesses the capacity to utter, to remember the 1-Light from within the heart?

Those who have forged a loving connection with the 1-Light. Those who have successfully united with the 1-Light recognize its inestimable worth, and they offer everything to the Wisdom. Once this submission occurs, there is no longer any inclination to trade in anything else. They now trade in the true wealth: the 1-Light. In fact, for them, everything is the 1-Light.

Thus, the merchant and trader are the same—the mind and the profit are both the 1-Light itself. Through the Wisdom, we learn what to trade in. We pull ourselves out of the world of Maya, the enchanting, alluring enticement of material possessions and transient relationships. We disentangle ourselves from our attachments to the material world and to fleeting connections. We learn how to become immersed in constant and devoted remembrance of the 1-Light. We seek this kind of success or fruitfulness. We seek to accept the Command from within.

We are beckoned to explore a new realm of wealth that enriches not just our minds but our very beings, offering us a connection with the invaluable that transcends material riches. Are we willing to have this type of wealth in our lives?

May the 1-Light become our capital.
May our minds become the traders.
May we practice devoted remembrance with every breath.

May the Wisdom-Guru guide us!