Table Of ContentNitnem
The Sikh’s Daily Routine
Nidhi Singh
Copyright Sep, 2018, Nidhi Singh
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Morning Prayers (Punj Bani)
Japji Sahib
Jap Sahib
Amrit Savaiye (Sudh Savaiye or Tav Prasad Savaiye)
Chaupai Sahib (Benti Chaupai)
Anand Sahib
Evening Prayers
Rehras Sahib
Bedtime Prayer
Kirtan Sohila
Ardaas (to be repeated after each prayer)
Nitnem is a collection of Sikh hymns (Gurbani) to be read at different times of the day. These
are mandatory for the Amritdhari Sikh as per the Sikh Rehat Maryada. There are five hymns (Five
Banis) to be sung during Amrit Vela (early morning,) the Rehras Sahib hymn for the evening, and
Kirtan Sohila for the night. An Ardaas should follow the morning and evening prayers.
§
Japji Sahib
“The egg of falsehood has burst, the mind is illumined,
The Guru has cut the shackles off the feet and freed the enslaved.”
Guru Arjan Dev
Foreword
Guru Nanak Dev (15 Apr 1469- 22 Sep 1539), founder of the Sikh faith, composed Japji
Sahib. He is said to have uttered it after being enlightened, at age 30.
Japji Sahib is the keystone of the compilation of the most sacred Banis (hymns) of the Sikh
Gurus (Gurbani). Sikhs recite it at designated hours as part of Nitnem, or daily discipline.
Guru Nanak was born in Talwandi, now called Nankana Sahib in His honor, near Lahore in
Pakistan. His birthday is traditionally celebrated by Sikhs on full moon day (Puranmasi) in November,
though he was born in April. In the absence of any well-documented records, there is a debate among
scholars about the birthdate. Bhai Bala, long known as a companion of Guru Nanak, wrote in the
latter’s Janamsakhi (chronicle) that His birth was in the Katik, or November. Subsequent renowned
British as well as Sikh Historians, on working backwards from His date of death, given that His age
then was affirmed as 70 years, 5 months and 7 days, have held that he was born in Baisakh, i.e., April.
However tradition runs strong and the birth celebrations are held in November, much like the
celebrations of Jesus in December, even though he wasn’t born in that month, as shepherds are not
supposed to be in the fields in that season.
Guru Nanak spent much of His time singing hymns in praise and glory of God, travelling and
doing missionary work to bring people to the true and righteous path. He never practiced or advocated
a life of austerity; he encouraged people to be responsible in their worldly, household functions, while
committed to spiritual pursuit. There were no hermits and no priests for him:
“Gurmukhi Nivritt Privritt Pachana”
‘The Gurmukh understands and balances both worldly and spiritual ways,’ he said.
He preached a simple, modest, humble way of life that had no place for much of the ills of
society prevalent at that time: meaningless rituals and dogmas, superstitions, highhandedness of
priests, and discrimination based on caste, religion or class. All he asked was a Muslim to be a good
Muslim and a Hindu to be a good Hindu.
He engaged prominent thinkers and saints from other religions and beliefs in theological
discourses, called Siddhi Goshti. He was a patient listener and always invited the other to speak first:
“Kich Suniye, Kich Kahiye”
‘Listening some, saying some,’ is how he has been described.
The underlying leitmotif of these dialogues used to be the peaceful coexistence of differing
viewpoints. Not only did Guru Nanak’s teachings point man on the path to god, they exhorted humans
to be humane. His message was eternally relevant: exhorting love, honesty, peace, morality and
forbearance.
He drew followers across all religions, and on His death, the Hindus and Muslims began a
quarrel over who had the rights to perform His last rights. Finally, it was agreed that both communities
would place flowers over the sheet covering His body, and whomevers flowers withered, would lose
the rights over the body. The following morning when the sheet covering the body was removed, it
was found all the flowers were still fresh, while the body had vanished. Ashamed of their squabbling
ways, the two communities divided the sheet and cremated it after their own customs: a Samadhi by
the Hindus, a grave by the Muslims.
Japji Sahib was written in Gurmukhi, the language of the gurus. Gurmukh means to face the
guru. It denotes a person who is willing to follow in the ways of the guru.
To Jap, is to chant, recite, and understand wisdom through repetitions. Ji is added as an
expression of respect.
Guru Nanak did not sit down to read from a book or transcribe His teachings into one, he
simply sang and intoned in ecstasy from an insistent inner voice. His verses are called, ‘Dhur ki Bani’,
or words from beyond. Bhai Lehna, before he came to be revered as Guru Angad, was to compile His
verses in due course, many years later.
Islam has its Koran, Judaism has the Old Testament, Buddhism has the Triptaka; all written in
languages that though were difficult, were homogenous and could be mastered. The Sikh hymns on the
other hand have been written originally, in addition to Gurmukhi, in Persian, Hindi and even Marathi,
and have drawn richly upon Sanskrit and Arabic vocabulary, making the task of translating and
imbibing them extremely onerous. The Guru Granth Sahib has 937 hymns of 36 Hindu saints, and
Muslim Sufis and Fakirs, including Kabir, Baba Farid etc.! Guru Arjan Dev, the 5th guru who
compiled the Granth, invited saints from all faiths to recite their hymns, and included only those that
appealed to him, and which he wanted to inculcate in His faith.
Sikh gurus were notable proponents of Vedic Dharma. The Guru Granth Sahib is filled with
innumerable allusions to the Vedas, lighting the lamp to their glory:
“Onkaar Veda Nirmaye”
(God created the Vedas)
- Rag Ramkali Mahala 1
“Hari Aagya hoye Veda pap punya vichar ya”
(God created the Vedas so that man could discern virtue and sin)
- Maru Dakhne Mahala 5 Shabd 17
Equally, scholarly writings abound on the prophecies in the Vedas and Puranas about the
advent of Guru Nanak on earth to alleviate mankind’s sufferings. In the RIG VEDA, it is stated that:
"When in the world the sinful ways will be on the ascent and noble behavior will disappear,
as the fading of the moon when on its wane on the darkest night, there will appear Vishnu as a
prominent Prophet from the Kshatriya Clan and will manifest in consecutive form through ten
Prophets to bring back the ways of virtue to the sickly world.”
At another position in the same Veda is inserted thus:
"The Prophet in the Kali Yuga will manifest in three aspects: As an Avatar espousing Truth;
as a family man, and at the same time a Raja Yogi"
In the Bhavekhath Purana, (Bhavekhath means future foretelling), there are numerous places
where the advent of Guru Nanak is directly alluded to:
"In the Kali Yuga when virtuousness in the world is waning there will appear a Prophet
named Nanak who from birth will be gifted with extraordinary saintly powers. He will discourse on
the nobleness of life, and the purging of the sinning ways."
The Japji sahib is often uneven in its meter and rhythm, because Bhai Lehna didn’t rearrange
the verses to infuse rhythm or meter; he left the original purity and beauty untouched. For a future
study of the scriptures, it becomes important to understand how verses are set to music, because it was
held that the best way to attain bliss while chanting the Banis was when they were musical or
rhythmic.
Only very briefly about meter: Meter is the basic rhythmic structure of a verse. Verse is poetry
in metrical rhythm. Meter is based on the pattern of syllables. Syllables may be classified as long-short
(depending on how much length/ time it takes to utter them), heavy-light (weight), or stressed-
unstressed. A Mora is the unit of a syllable’s weight, which may be based on its length/time or stress.
A Mora is a single short syllable (a half-note in music). A long Mora has two syllables (full note.)
Diphthongs are long syllables, often consisting of two vowels, where one merges into the next
one, like in: ‘coin, loud,’ etc. Short syllables have one vowel only.
English classical poetry is based on the qualitative meter, i.e., on basis of stressed syllables.
The meter is described in terms of feet; each foot consists of an unstressed syllable followed by a
stressed syllable. A meter has five iambic feet; hence it is called an iambic pentameter. Don’t get
stressed; in simple words:
One line of poetry or verse = pentameter = five iambs = five feet= five x unstressed and
stressed syllable pairs.
Sanskrit, on the other hand used Quantitative meter, basing rhythm on length and weight of a
syllable.
Japji Sahib contains 38 verses, or stanzas, or hymns, or Pauris (steps). It begins with a Mool
Mantra (the essential hymn, the fundamental prayer) and ends with a sloka (a song, a 4-line stanza in
Sanskrit metre.)
Mool Mantra is the first Shabd that is oft repeated throughout the scriptures. A shabd is a
hymn, or a speech… a sound used in religio-philosophical context. It has two aspects, the permanent
one of meaning, and the ephemeral one of sound. It denotes an utterance, a cosmic vibration like Aum
that can only be heard by the inner ear. Shabd is a mystical, indivisible word-whole. It is the verbal
testimony of revealed scriptures.
The Mool Mantra, or the seed mantra, encapsulates all of Sikh theology; the Guru Granth
Sahib is essentially an amplification of this Mool.
The Mool Mantra marvels at the attributes of the Creator.
Japji Sahib is the first composition to appear in the Sikh Holy Book, the Guru Granth Sahib (a
compilation of the teachings of the Sikh Gurus). Sikhs treat the Guru Granth Sahib as the final living
Guru, and there are to be no more Gurus after this. The Guru Granth Sahib is composed of several
chapters of Ragas, each containing Shabds, of which the first one is the Mool Mantra.
§
The Mool Mantra
Ik Onkaar
Sat Naam
Karta Purakh Nirbhao Nirvair Akaal Murat
Ajooni Saibhang Gur Prasad…
Up to here, some call it the Mool Mantra, or also the Manglaacharan Mantra. It appears 33
times in GGS (Guru Granth Sahib).
…Jap.
Add Sach Jugad Sach
Hai bhi Sach Nanak Hosi Bhi Sach.
Till here it is called the Maha Mantra. Some consider the mantra up to this point as the true
Mool Mantra, since it appears as a whole only once in the Guru Granth Sahib. We shall treat the verse
up to this point as the Mool Mantra for this reason.
§
The Mool Mantra Interpreted
Ik Onkaar
There is only one God. One Creator and Creation.
Ik Onkaar combines three words basically:
Ik meaning one,
On is derived from Hindu Aum (Om), meaning The Supreme Being,
And Kaar, meaning formless.
The symbol Ik is the numeral 1, while On is the first word of Onkaar, written as Om in Hindi
or Gurmukhi. The symbol Ik Onkaar is found on all Sikh scriptures and places of worship.
The axiom Ik Onkaar sits majestically at the head of the Mool Mantra.
Ik, or One, affirms monotheistic concept of Sikh faith. It is the central tenet of its philosophy.
There is only one God as against the Trinity belief of Hinduism. Guru Nanak said:
“Sahib mera eko hai, eko hai bhai, eko hai.”
‘My master is the one, one only, O brother, he is the sole,’ he’d said.
Not only is there one God, all creation is one, united in Him. God subsumes all forms in him,
and also pervades all forms. God is the one source of creation; it was there when there was nothing,
and it will be there when there is nothing.
On, or Om, or Aum, is the Supreme Soul, the Brahma of all creation. God manifests in His
creation through diverse forms, and is thus knowable to creation. His oneness is emphasized in uniting
diversity. He is at once manifest, imminent and transcendental. Om is the unity of all cosmic sound
and vibration, where matter and energy is reduced to its primordial form. Om is like Amen, meaning
‘so be it.’ Initially both Om and Amen were used as sounds of approval or consent. Om is closest to
the Christian concept of Logos, the word of God.
‘In the beginning was the word and the word was with the god and the word was god.’
Kaar- God exists without shape or form, yet pervades in all forms of creation.
Hence, there is one creator and one creation. The creator is formless yet is known to us by all
the forms he manifests in.
The strong resonance of Om within Sikh thought underlines the founding of the faith by
contemporary saints of the time who were Hindus by birth and functioned within the overall cultural
and theological span of Hinduism. Other Indic religions, such as Jainism and Buddhism, were founded
in a similar way within the overall context of Hindu philosophy.
Waheguru, as well as Ik Onkaar are chanted by Gurmukhs in the manner of constant
remembrance of god by aloud or sotto voce repetitions. (Naam Simran- remembering the name.)
§
Sat Naam
Truth is His Name.
I Am.
One will have to make a difference between the Sanskrit derivatives ‘sat’ and ‘satya’. Most
often, the popular and easy description so far is; there is one god (Ik Onkaar) and His name is truth
(Sat Naam).
But perhaps the meaning is deeper than a superficial explanation of the mantra.
Sat means beingness, eternal, whereas satya means true, everlasting. (The everlasting part
being common.)
Truth is a quest, a mathematical reckoning, an opposite of falsehood, as one is an opposite of
zero.
Naam means name, symbol, hierogram, or essence.
Hence a name has been given to one who exists, beyond question or doubt.
Another interpretation possible is: Essence (naam), and Everlasting (sat).
The essence of god never changes; it transcends time and space.
The Guru Granth Sahib enlightens that Naam is synonymous with shabd; we strive to earn
‘naam’ to realize god, and moksha; freedom from eternal cycle of birth and death.
Naam also signifies a command (hukum); ‘Do it in His name.’ ‘I charge you in His name!’
Nanak said, ‘ Eko Naam Hukum Hai.’
Nanak explains when nothing existed god was in a state of deep meditation and self-absorption
for an incredibly long time- 36 ages. When he willed, or gave the hukum, that His values be
manifested, he uttered the word, or the cosmic vibration, which science also refers to as the big bang,
that led to creation. He created the rays of light that are present in all creation.
Physics suggests that when sound vibrations are enhanced manifold, they convert into waves
of light.
Paraphrased, Sat Naam would now mean the essence of the eternal, or, the essence is the
essence. The essence of god is that he is the essence (of everything.)
Or, I (my name, identity) am (beingness).
In biblical passages, when god was asked to identify himself, he said:
‘ I am that I am.’
Guru Nanak said that without Sat Naam, he had no other miracle to give. Sat Naam is what
other cultures and religions you might find refer to as Paraná, Chee, The Holy Spirit and Life Force.
To sum up, Sat Naam would mean, Everlasting Essence.
