Hymns of the Sikh Gurus Read online

  NIKKY-GUNINDER KAUR SINGH

  Hymns of the Sikh Gurus

  With a foreword by Narinder Singh Kapany

  PENGUIN BOOKS

  CONTENTS

  Foreword

  One Reality Is

  From Guru Nanak to the Guru Granth

  From East to West

  HYMNS OF THE SIKH GURUS

  MORNING: Jap

  MORNING: Shabad Hazare

  Majh Mahalla 5

  Dhanasri Mahalla 1

  Tilang Mahalla 1

  Tilang Mahalla 1

  Suhi Mahalla 1

  Rag Bilaval Mahalla 1

  Bilaval Mahalla 1

  MORNING: Jaap

  MORNING AND INITIATION: Savayye

  EVENING: Rahiras

  Sodar Rag Asa Mahalla 1

  Asa Mahalla 1

  Asa Mahalla 1

  Rag Gujri Mahalla 4

  Rag Asa Mahalla 4

  Asa Mahalla 4

  Asa Mahalla 1

  Asa Mahalla 5

  Chaupai Benati

  Savayya

  Dohra

  Ramkali Mahalla 3 Anand

  Mundavani Mahalla 5

  Shalok Mahalla 5

  MORNING AND EVENING: Ardas

  NIGHT TIME AND DEATH: Kirtan Sohila

  Sohila Rag Gauri Dipaki Mahalla 1

  Rag Asa Mahalla 1

  Rag Dhanasri Mahalla 1

  Rag Gauri Purbi Mahalla 4

  Rag Gauri Purbi Mahalla 5

  MARRIAGE: Lavan

  COMMUNAL: Barah Maha

  COMMUNAL: Shaloks of the Ninth Guru

  PERSONAL AND COMMUNAL: Sukhmani

  Footnotes

  One Reality Is

  From Guru Nanak to the Guru Granth

  From East to West

  MORNING: Jap

  PERSONAL AND COMMUNAL: Sukhmani

  APPENDIX ONE: The Ten Sikh Gurus

  APPENDIX TWO: Contributors to the Guru Granth

  Glossary of Terms and Phrases

  Select Bibliography

  Acknowledgments

  Follow Penguin

  Copyright

  PENGUIN CLASSICS

  Hymns of the Sikh Gurus

  Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh was born in India, and went for high school to the USA. She received her BA in Philosophy and Religion from Wellesley College, her MA from the University of Pennsylvania, and her PhD from Temple University. She is the Crawford professor and chair of the department of religious studies at Colby College in the USA. From The Feminine Principle in the Sikh Vision of the Transcendent (Cambridge University Press, 1993) to her latest The First Sikh: The Life and Legacy of Guru Nanak by Penguin Viking (2019), Nikky Singh has been publishing extensively in the field of Sikh studies.

  IN MEMORY OF MY PARENTS IN WHOSE ARMS I FIRST HEARD THE GURUS’ VERSE

  Foreword

  The founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak, proclaimed his scriptures which later became the heart of the Guru Granth, dhur ki bani—the revealed Word. As one of the youngest major world religions, the Sikh faith retains the original manuscript of the scriptures intact to this day. But these scriptures do not only live on the printed page; they are also poetry set to music which lives as sacred sound in the everyday and special moments of the community’s life. Perhaps most striking is the fact that the scriptures of the Sikhs include writings of numerous non-Sikh saints.

  The Revelation was disseminated to the disciples in the language of the time and woven into the social, historic, political, folkloric, linguistic and mythological fabric of the day. Translation and interpretation of original religious scriptures into modern language is, thus, both a noble and a formidable task. In the words of Professor Puran Singh: ‘The poetic patina of the verbal vocabulary of Guru Granth does not necessarily have equivalencies or correspondences in the cross vocabulary of the English language.’ Herein lies the biggest challenge for a translator.

  One of the earliest efforts to translate the Sikh scriptures into English was made by M.A. Macauliffe in 1909 in his monumental and widely acclaimed volumes Sikh Religion. His adoration and admiration of the Sikhs and the Sikh scriptures are best expressed in his statement: ‘All persons of discrimination acquainted with the Sikhs set a high value on them, but it appears that a knowledge throughout the world of the excellence of their religion would enhance even the present regard with which they are entertained.’

  Other Western scholars have imbibed the beauty and spirituality of the Sikh scriptures. Arnold Toynbee, after being exposed to translation of the Adi Granth (Guru Granth), proclaimed: ‘Mankind’s religious future may be obscure, yet one thing can be foreseen: the living higher religions are going to influence each other more than before, in these days of increasing communication between all parts of the world and all branches of the human race. In this coming religious debate, the Sikh religion, and its scriptures, the Adi Granth, will have something of special value to say to the rest of the world’ (1960).

  Pearl S. Buck studied the scriptures of great religions and came to this conclusion: ‘Shri Guru Granth Sahib is a source book, an expression of man’s loneliness, his aspiration, his longings, his cry to God and his hunger for communication with that Being. I have studied the scriptures of other great religions, but I do not find elsewhere the same power of appeal to the heart and mind as I find in these volumes’ (1960).

  While numerous translations of Sikh scriptures have been undertaken in the past, the need for a translation of key sections of the Sikh scriptures into the language of today has been widely recognized. Dr Nikky-Guninder Kaur Singh, a young Sikh scholar of wisdom, dedication and zeal, has aptly undertaken this challenge. Daughter of the world-class Sikh scholar and intellectual giant, Professor Harbans Singh, she has absorbed the beauty and spirituality of the Sikh scriptures from the cradle and developed her scholarly talents in the Western world. This publication is a testament to Nikky-Guninder Singh’s love and adoration of the Sikh scriptures and her desire to share her ecstasy with Sikhs and non-Sikhs in the Western world. University and public libraries and, indeed, every Sikh household in the West should place this book on their shelves, and it should be required reading for all Sikh youth.

  The International Sacred Literature Trust deserves to be specially commended for their commitment to the publication of translations of scriptures of various religions into modern and easily comprehensible language. Without the deep dedication, infinite persuasive powers and untiring efforts of the Executive Director, Kerry Brown, none of this would have been possible. Nor indeed without the commitment, efforts and scholarly precision of Dr W. Owen Cole, an old friend of the Sikh faith and a consulting editor with the ISLT.

  The trustees of the Sikh Foundation are most gratified with the opportunity to sponsor this worthwhile project.

  Narinder Singh Kapany

  Chairman, The Sikh Foundation

  15 June 1995

  One Reality Is

  The Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh holy book, contains no historical narratives, no biographical details and no obligatory rituals. It is a collection of spiritually exalted poetry carrying only intimations. The theme running throughout is that of the individual’s longing to experience the Transcendent Reality, moulded into poetic symbolism of great delicacy

  and beauty.

  Granth means ‘book’ and, since the Tenth and last human Guru declared it so in 1708, this collection of poetic revelations by the Sikh Gurus and by Hindu and Muslim saints has been treated by Sikhs as their personal Guru. The epithet Sahib is often added to the title as a sign of respect. It is also known as the Adi Granth or the ‘Primal Book’. It is the sole visual and aural icon for the Sikhs and main source of their daily prayers.
All rites of passage take place in the sound and sight of this text: the newborn baby is named in its presence, the marriage ceremony entails walking around it four times, death in a home is followed by a reading, often continuous, of its 1430 pages. In times of uncertainty and difficulty, or of joy and celebration, different types of recitations are the prescribed religious observance: saptah (seven-day), akhand (non-stop for forty-eight hours) or sampat (one particular hymn repeated after each different hymn).

  Hymns of the Sikh Gurus is a selection of poetry from the Guru Granth and from the Dasam Granth, the Book of the Tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, compiled some time after his death in 1708. Although the Guru Granth forms the centre of Sikh worship, the poetry of Guru Gobind Singh is highly esteemed by the Sikhs, and also forms part of their daily prayers.

  The Guru Granth begins with the Jap, the most famous of the divinely inspired poems, or bani, of Guru Nanak (1469–1539 CE), the founder of Sikhism. It is chanted daily by Sikhs and its first line, Ikk Oan Kar, literally ‘One Reality Is’,1 is the cornerstone of the faith. The Guru Granth and the Dasam Granth are an exposition of that One Reality, Its relation with our world, Its relation with each of us personally.

  At the core of Guru Nanak’s message is the understanding that all forms (saguna) are informed by the Formless (nirguna). Infinite and formless, the Ultimate Being is inherent within all forms and yet remains transcendent.

  Whichever way we turn, we see our Source,

  Says Nanak, the One has form, and yet the One is formless.2

  You are the ocean and all are within You,

  Without You, there is no other.3

  You have a thousand eyes yet without eye are You,

  You have a thousand faces yet without face are You,

  You have a thousand feet yet without foot are You,

  You have a thousand scents yet without scent are You,

  . . . There is a Light in all, and that Light is You.4

  We notice a marvellous dialectic of the particular and the universal, the physical and the metaphysical, the secular and the divine. ‘The Ultimate is in the individual, the individual is in the Ultimate, / The two are one, there is no duality.’5 Western thinkers like Plato have tended to separate ideas and pure forms from everyday phenomena. In this view, only the universal and formless idea of the ‘rose’ is real; the particular roses—those that can be seen, smelt and touched—are changeable, temporary, imperfect and, therefore, unreal. The Sikh perspective is to see the particular in the universal and the universal in the particular. A fluid connection is constantly maintained between them.

  You have one form, without compare,

  Here You are a beggar, there You are a king.6

  The Gurus use an endless variety of images to evoke our connection with the Divine Reality: the potter with his clay, the blacksmith with his anvil, the mother nursing her child, the lady churning her pot of yogurt, the flowers in the garden, the animals of the earth. The entire world pulsates with divine potentiality, every atom vibrates with ultimate possibility. The Sikh understanding of Ultimate Reality is a dynamic and joyous experience.

  Among the most beautiful ways by which the Gurus describe the special relationship between the Ultimate Reality and humanity is through the language of intimate human relationships. The words of Guru Arjan, ‘You are my father, You are my mother, You are my brother, You are my friend’,7 are regularly recited by the Sikhs. Images of conception, the growth of the unborn child in its mother’s womb, and birth express the creative force of the Ultimate. ‘From mother’s blood and father’s semen, the human form is created,’ says the

  Guru Granth.8 ‘In the warmth of the mother’s womb are we first formed.’9

  Marriage, the highest experience of human love, is a particular form of this universal and formless love. It expresses the longing for Union with the Ultimate Reality. The Gurus often speak from the point of view of a woman, a bride awaiting her divine Groom, who addresses the Formless One as ‘Beloved’.

  My mind and body yearn

  but my Lover is far away in foreign lands.

  The Beloved does not come home, I am sighing to death,

  and the lightning strikes fear in me.

  I lie alone on the bed, tormented;

  mother, the pain is like death to me.

  Without the Divine One, how can there be sleep or hunger?

  What clothing can soothe the skin?

  Nanak says, the bride is truly wed

  when she is embraced by her Beloved.10

  In giving these yearnings a female voice which speaks for all humanity, Sikh scripture opens out the definition of ‘man’. The Sikh view is that a separation between male and female denies the wholeness of human nature. The Guru Granth emphasizes instead the significance of being human. In it, men and women share human suffering and hope. The explicit male and female imagery in the Guru Granth does not contradict the formless nature of the Ultimate One. Rather, it suggests a vast inclusiveness. The Ultimate Reality is above all and includes all. Whatever human beings can experience in their world is a part of the Metaphysical One.

  As noted earlier, the starting point of the Guru Granth is this One Reality, expressed both orally and visually by Ikk Oan Kar. The visual symbol of this statement (see p. 49) begins with the numeral 1, recognizable to people of all languages and cultures. It is followed by the sign for Oan (‘Reality’, Sanskrit Aum) which embodies the notions of infinity and of the deepest reaches of the self, and is completed by the sign for Kar (‘is’), an arch reaching away into space. This powerful and impeccably succinct symbol and statement, depicted on Sikh gateways, walls, medallions, canopies, fabric, and even jewellery, is followed by another equally precise revelation, Sat Naam, ‘Truth by Name’. In the next stanza Guru Nanak explains further:

  Truth before time,

  Truth throughout time

  Truth here and now

  Says Nanak, Truth is evermore.

  Immediately, he raises the question: ‘How then to be true? How then to break the wall of lies?’ The transition from the True Name to true living is immediate and spontaneous. The Ultimate Reality is experiential. It is the stuff of life and It turns on the central Sikh concept of Naam, ‘Name’. The Name is both the message and the messenger of Truth, the revelation and the revealer of Ultimate Reality. It is the Primal Guru, the Enlightener. It is what we can know of the Unknowable One Who pervades all existence and is beyond existence. This revelation and process of revelation is known as the ‘Name’ of the Divine because it is analogous to when we learn the name of a person or thing and they thereby become known to us, are in some way revealed.

  But the divine Name of Sikhism is no particular word or mantra; It is written within us and all around us.

  There is no place without the Name.11

  It is the revelation, inherent in the cosmos, presenting Itself to us in many ways.

  For the destitute, Your Name is wealth,

  For the homeless, Your Name is home,

  For the lowly, Your Name is honour,

  You grant Your gifts to every heart.12

  As with the macrocosm, so too each individual body is a sacred space of the Name.

  The ambrosial treasures of the divine Name

  Rest within the body itself.’13

  The One whose Name is Truth is present, vibrates and can be heard within our body. The individual self and the material body are affirmed and celebrated as houses of the Divine irrespective of gender, race, class and culture.

  For the Sikh Gurus, Name is the only way of communing with the Divine: ‘Name is the highest action; Name is the highest duty.’14 To receive the Name is to experience the formless in this world of form, to know the transcendent within each and all.

  Let us remember the Name and remind others as well,

  By hearing, reciting and living the Name, we are liberated.

  The Name is the essence, the form and the reality;

  Says Nanak, let us praise the Name spontaneo
usly.15

  The Name is closely identified with the Word (Shabad) which also takes a central place in Sikh metaphysics. Creation, ‘written in a single stroke’, is founded on the Word by which we may glean the Transcendent. Like the Name, the Word is intangible and insubstantial yet residing in the tangible and substantial. Like the Name, vibrations of the divine Word permeate us all, revealing the Ultimate within each of us. Everyone is endowed with anahad Shabad, the soundless Word.

  But how can the Name be recognized within? How can the soundless Word deep inside be heard? Although the Name is no particular word, it is by words, especially those of the Guru Granth, that the Name is felt within. For Sikhs the Word is embodied in the Guru Granth and, like the strings of a sitar setting up resonance with the tambura, it can resonate the Word within our own body.

  Guru Gobind Singh’s Jaap in the Dasam Granth begins with the question of how to describe the One who has ‘no trait, no trace whatsoever . . . Who can recount all Your names? / The wise name You from Your actions’16 he says, and then begins his Jaap, a hymn in speedy rhythm to exalt the Ultimate Reality using a plethora of words and compounds from Sanskrit, Persian and Arabic to name this Unnameable.

  Unconquered / Unbreakable / Unchallenged / Unshakeable / Deep You are / Friend You are / Unencumbered / Utterly free / Enigmatic / Unknowable / Immortal / Unbound / Traceless / Placeless / Infinite / The Greatest / . . . Salutations to the Moon of moons / Salutations to the Sun of suns / Salutations to the Song of songs / Salutations to the Tune of tunes / Salutations to the Dance of dances / Salutations to the Sound of sounds / Salutations to the Hand of hands / Salutations to the Reason of reason . . .17

  Exalting the Ultimate Reality in beautiful poetry evokes a harmonic response from a Truth that is already inside. In Sikh worship, the Word embodied in the Guru Granth Sahib is not just read or heard, it must echo blissfully within oneself. That is why meditation and contemplation upon the Name is so important. Melodious recitations and chanting of the scriptural hymns which take place in gurudwaras and in homes are means of entering into the deep recesses of our own selves. It is direct and unmediated religious experience. There are no priests, no commentators, no hierarchies between reciters/singers and listeners, no social or gender obstacles between a person and the sublime verses. In Name-adoration as this is known, the mind and the senses, matter and spirit are together impelled onwards in a holistic aesthetic experience. By reciting and remembering the poems of the Guru Granth and Dasam Granth with their ardent longing for the Divine, we unite with the Beloved who is far away, the Beloved who is deep within. We each find the Name of our Beloved.