In the Japuji Sahib, Guru Nanak, the first Sikh Guru, asks: "How to be a man of Truth and how to break the wall of falsehood?" Japu meaning japna, recitation or meditation or Japuji Sahib, the Sikh morning prayer, is the opening composition of the Guru Granth Sahib. 
Composed by Guru Nanak, Japuji
Sahib contains a prologue called the mool mantra or the basic creed of the Sikh
faith which sums up the characteristics of the Supreme Being: "There is only one
God who is beyond time and beyond the circle of birth, death and rebirth. He,
the Creator, is without fear and without hate. He is immortal, omniscient and
omnipresent, self-existent, known by the grace of the Guru.
Guru Nanak says, in order to
be a man of Truth, your actions should be pure and the precondition for
spiritual success is the suppression of the ego with the discipline of morality
and meditation, as well as by moulding one's life in accordance with
hukam
and
raza
His Will.
Understanding His
hukam
will rid one of ego. The Guru suggests a three-fold course for realisation:
Sunai
or listening to the Holy Name,
Maniai
or conviction in the truth of the Guru's Word, and
Nidhiasan
or carrying out the Guru's instructions in daily life. Three conditions indicate
not only a code of ethics and conduct for the welfare of the individual but also
include the feeling of public welfare. Even the Sikh prayer,
Ardas
,
seeks the welfare of entire humanity,
Sarbat-da-bhala
,
because true worship of God is service of His
creation.
In the last section
of Japuji Sahib, Guru Nanak mentions five stages of man's progress on the path
of divinity. Man's spiritual progress begins in
Dharam-Khand,
that is, the realm of duty where a man discharges his responsibilities to
himself, his family, community and country. The first requirement is purity of
conduct. The next stage is
Gian-Khand
,
the realm of knowledge where the variety and vastness of God's creation is
realised. The third stage is
Saram-Khand
,
the region of toil or the realm of spiritual effort to train body and mind to
acquire an understanding of spiritual qualities. The next
stage
,
Karam-Khand
, is the region of grace. With
Divine Grace, he becomes
Gurmukh
,
inclined towards God, not towards
himself.
Beyond these four
regions is the region of eternal Truth,
Sach-Khand
,
the abode of the Formless. The devotees, now saints, are in harmony with the
Almighty. Guru Nanak compares the evolution of a devotee to the minting of a
perfect coin of gold. The qualities of continence, patience, divine knowledge,
wisdom, prayer, austerity and love of the
Shabad
or Divine Word make him a true man of God.
The message of the Japuji is
universal since it simply describes the nature of the Ultimate Reality and the
way to comprehend it. Meditation and recitation of Bani is always revered by the
Sikhs as the
Shabad.
"Shabda
is my Guru, and the meditating mind the disciple/ By dwelling on Him I remain
detached,/ Nanak, God, the cherisher of the world through the ages, is my
Guru." This was Guru Nanak's reply to a yogi who asked him: "Who is your Guru?
Whose disciple are you?" In 1708 Guru Gobind Singh proclaimed the Sacred
Granth
as the Guru. For the Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib has since been the sole
spiritual authority.
This is
the tricentenary of the consecration of the Guru Granth Sahib as the eternal
guru of the Sikhs. `300 saal Guru de naal'.
