tījai paharai raiṇi kai vaṇjāriā mitrā dhan joban siu citu.
hari kā nāmu na cetahī vaṇjāriā mitrā badhā chuṭahi jitu.
hari kā nāmu na cetai prāṇī bikalu bhaïā saṅgi māiā.
dhan siu ratā jobani matā ahilā janamu gavāiā.
dharam setī vāpāru na kīto karamu na kīto mitu.
kahu nānak tījai paharai prāṇī dhan joban siu citu.3.
-Guru Granth Sahib 75
Guru Nanak Sahib compares the night’s quarters to a life divided into four parts: infancy, youth, adulthood, and old age. These stages explain how beings come to visit this world, only metaphorical traders. Thus, instead of wasting life, individuals are advised to try to make life successful by remembering IkOankar (the Divine). This Sabad encourages seekers to develop the lifestyle to receive the honor at the court of IkOankar.
Commentary
Literal Translation
Interpretive Transcreation
Poetical Dimension
Calligraphy
O trader-friend, in the third quarter of the night, in the prime years of your youth, trading takes on another level, to become all-too consuming with the potential to inflate your sense of identity. There are even new types of trades: wealth, status, sensory pleasures, and relationships. You get lost in the trading process and become restless when dealing with the highs and lows that eventually result from these transactions. You haven’t lived in a principled way or been mindful about the types of actions you take. In this state of forgetfulness, you haven’t centered your attention inwardly to contemplate on the things that intrinsically matter to you. With no time devoted to the remembrance of your Creator-Provider, you do not know the intuitive wisdom and Nam, 1Ness that is available to you to experience lovingly. We reflect on a time when the act of trading has utterly consumed us. So much so that we even forget what we are trading. We fail to give ourselves the time to reflect or notice that the return on the investment isn’t providing us with the level of satisfaction or joy that we had hoped. Instead, it has deepened the void within. If we can start to center our awareness on Nam, 1Ness, our Creator-Provider’s all-pervading loving presence will help us focus on what counts and help us realign our intentions when we notice how we have been trading. O trader-friend, in the third stage of life, because our sole focus has been on trading on ourselves, we have no space to reflect on what really counts, and this human birth of ours could go to waste.
