The Everlasting Treasures of the Divine – Japji Sahib (Paurī 31)

Based on Maskeen Ji’s Discourse on Japji Sahib

In this paurī, Guru Nanak Dev Ji reveals a profound truth about sustenance, creation, and human anxiety. He lifts the veil of worry from the human heart and shows that all provisions for life have already been perfectly placed by the Eternal.

The Divine Throne Everywhere

“Āsaṇ loe loe bhaṇḍār” – Guru Nanak says the throne of the Eternal is established in every realm, every world, every corner of existence. There is no place where His presence is absent. From the tiniest insect to the vast heavens beyond our gaze, all is encompassed in His throne.

Wherever His seat is, there also are His treasures (bhaṇḍār). These are the storehouses of sustenance, resources, and abundance through which life continues. Without such treasures, creation could not survive even for a moment.

Provision Was Made Once, For All Time

“Jo kichh pāiā su ekā vār” – Whatever He placed in those treasures, He placed it all at once, in the beginning.

This is an astonishing truth. The Divine did not need to return again and again to add provisions. From the very start, everything was arranged in completeness. Since the beginning of time, creation has been drawing from those treasures — grains, fruits, vegetables, rivers of water, minerals, oil, coal, metals, and countless resources. And yet, they do not come to an end.

Humans have mined the earth for centuries, cut forests, harvested fields, drawn water — but the storehouse remains. What seems limited to our eyes is in fact limitless in His design.

The Root of Human Anxiety

Why does Guru Ji emphasize this? Because He knows the central worry of humanity: sustenance (rizak).

Every human carries the same anxiety: “I have food today, but will I have it tomorrow?” This tomorrow-anxiety is unique to humans. Birds eat what they find today, never worrying about tomorrow’s grain. Animals drink from the streams before them without planning for the next day. But man, with his restless mind, fills his life with worry about tomorrow.

It is this anxiety that drives man to wander — from village to city, from country to country — in search of livelihood. The struggle for bread has shaped history itself.

Bread, Water, and Air

If we reflect, bread is not even the most essential. Without bread, humans can live weeks, even months. Without water, only days. Without air, not even seconds.

Yet no one ever says, “I am migrating to another land to earn air.” Nor do people wander to “earn water.” Air has been given freely, universally. Water is also abundant in rivers, rains, lakes, and seas. Only bread has been made harder to obtain.

Complaints Against the Divine

Many saints and poets reflected on this mystery. Some even dared to complain to God.

• King Bhartrihari said: “O Lord, You gave the serpent such an easy provision — mere dust, which it eats contentedly for months, never needing to wander. Yet man, the noblest of Your creation, must labor endlessly for his bread. Why such injustice?”

• Poet Sundar lamented: “O God, giving man a stomach was the greatest sin! His whole life is consumed in filling it.”

• Pandit Gulab Singh questioned: “Lord, why bind even saints and seekers with the burden of hunger? Those who long only for Your remembrance must still beg food from worldly people.”

Guru Nanak’s Vision

But Guru Nanak Dev Ji does not call this an injustice. Instead, He shows it to be God’s mercy. If bread were as easy to obtain as dust for the serpent, man would have lived like serpents — idle in holes, doing nothing. Out of the struggle for food has arisen civilization itself — houses, cities, science, art, music, poetry, philosophy. Hunger pushed man to build, create, and progress.

Thus, what seems like difficulty is in fact a blessing. Bread was made harder so that humanity would rise to its potential.

Anxiety Versus Contemplation

Still, Guru Ji warns against worry (cintā). Effort is ours to make, but anxiety is wasted.

“So tāñ cintā kare jin upāiā jag.”
Only the Creator should carry worry, for He made the world. Man’s role is not anxiety but contemplation (cintan).

When man turns his restless worry into contemplation, creativity blossoms. From contemplation arose philosophy, literature, music, art, spirituality, and science. Worry drains life; contemplation enriches it.

The True Work of the Creator

“Kar kar vekhai sirjaṇhār” – The Creator continually fashions, sustains, and observes His creation. Nothing is left unattended.

“Nanak sache kī sācī kār” – O Nanak, the True One’s work is true. His creation is flawless, perfect, and complete. To find fault in it is only to expose our own ignorance.

Bowing to the Eternal One

The paurī ends with deep reverence:

“Ādes tisai ādes” – Salutations, salutations to that One.

He is:

• Ād – primal, the very beginning
• Anīl – stainless, without blemish
• Anād – without origin, the source of all yet Himself without beginning
• Anāhat – beyond destruction, imperishable
• Jug jug eko ves – the same through all ages, unchanging across time

To such a One alone, eternal in every way, Nanak bows.

Conclusion

Paurī 31 removes the veil of human anxiety and reveals the completeness of Divine provision. Guru Nanak Dev Ji assures us:

• God’s throne and treasures are everywhere.
• All sustenance was given once, fully, and it never runs out.
• Human worry about bread is unnecessary; effort is required, but anxiety destroys.
• Out of the struggle for bread, humanity was made to create and progress — a divine blessing.
• The Creator’s work is flawless, and the Eternal One remains unchanged in all ages.

This paurī teaches us to trust in the abundance already provided, to turn from worry to contemplation, and to bow only to the Eternal, the Primal, the Imperishable One.