Japji Sahib

There is One Reality, the timeless source of all. Truth is its Name. It is the Creator, present within creation, free from fear and hostility, beyond the reach of time, unborn and self-existent. This Reality is realized through the Guru’s grace.

True in the beginning, true throughout the ages, true even now. Nanak says: Truth will remain true forever.

No amount of thinking can grasp the One, even after countless attempts. Silence alone does not bring the deepest inner stillness, however long one remains absorbed. The hunger of desire is not satisfied even by accumulating entire worlds. Thousands of clever strategies cannot accompany us on the path.

How, then, can we become truthful? How can the veil of illusion fall away? Nanak answers: by living in harmony with Hukam, the Divine Order woven into existence.

Through Hukam, forms come into being, though Hukam itself cannot be fully described. Through Hukam, living beings arise and receive their place and dignity. Through Hukam, experiences of high and low, joy and pain, unfold; some receive grace while others continue their wandering.

Everything exists within this Divine Order; nothing stands outside it. Nanak says that one who understands Hukam no longer speaks from the pride of a separate, self-sufficient ego.

Some sing of the Divine as limitless power; others praise the gifts they have received. Some contemplate virtues, beauty and greatness; others speak of knowledge so profound that it is difficult to grasp. Some sing of the creating and dissolving of forms, the giving and taking of life, the Presence that seems distant yet is close at hand.

There is no end to these descriptions. Countless voices speak, but none can exhaust the mystery. The Giver continues to give while the receivers grow tired; across the ages, life is sustained by this generosity. Nanak says the Divine directs the way of creation and remains free, abundant and joyful.

The Eternal One is true, and the Name is true; it is spoken with boundless love. Beings ask again and again, and the Giver keeps giving. What offering, then, could bring us into the Divine Presence? What words could open our hearts to love?

In the quiet hours before dawn, contemplate the True Name and the greatness of the One. Human life comes through the unfolding of our actions, while liberation is opened by grace. Nanak says that the True One alone is the source of all truth.

The One is neither installed nor manufactured: the Pure Reality exists of itself. Those who serve this Presence discover true honor. Sing of the inexhaustible treasury of virtues; listen deeply, and hold love in the heart. In this way sorrow can soften and peace can be brought home.

Through the Guru’s wisdom, the sacred sound is heard, understood and recognized as present everywhere. The Guru’s illuminating wisdom embraces all that people symbolize through different divine names. Nanak hears one essential teaching: there is one Giver for all beings; may I never forget that One.

What is the value of bathing at sacred places if the heart is untouched? When our life is aligned with the Divine, every place becomes sacred. All beings depend on the unfolding of grace, not merely outward rituals.

The Guru’s instruction can reveal an inner treasury of jewels: understanding, discernment and wisdom. Nanak returns to the same insight: one Giver sustains every living being; may that remembrance remain with me.

Even a life lasting many ages, recognized across the whole world and praised by everyone, would mean little without the glance of grace. A celebrated name is not the same as spiritual realization.

The Divine can awaken virtue even in those who seem to have none, and deepen it in those who already live virtuously. No person possesses a gift that the Creator lacks or can offer to the Creator as something new.

Through deep listening, people discover the wisdom associated with realized teachers, saints and seekers. Listening opens awareness of the earth, the sky and the many realms of existence. It helps us face mortality with a freer heart.

Nanak says the devoted remain inwardly joyful: through listening, sorrow and harmful tendencies begin to lose their hold.

Through deep listening, the wisdom represented by divine beings and revered teachers becomes accessible. Even one once dismissed or overlooked may find a voice worthy of praise. Listening reveals the pathways of yoga, the mysteries of the body and the teachings of sacred writings.

Nanak repeats that the devoted dwell in joy: through listening, sorrow and harmful tendencies are diminished.

Through deep listening arise truthfulness, contentment and understanding. Such listening is compared with bathing at many sacred places. It brings dignity through learning and allows attention to settle naturally into meditation.

Nanak says the devoted remain joyful: through listening, sorrow and harmful tendencies fall away.

Through deep listening one enters the depths of virtue and discovers dignity greater than worldly titles. Those who feel lost can find a path, and what seemed beyond comprehension becomes approachable.

Nanak says the devoted live in joy: through listening, sorrow and harmful tendencies are released.

The inner state of one who truly trusts and lives the Divine teaching cannot be fully described. No pen, paper or writer can capture it, and arguments about it fall short.

The Name is profoundly pure. One who truly lives in trust knows its reality directly in the heart.

Trusting the Divine teaching awakens awareness, understanding and wisdom. It deepens insight into the worlds of existence and frees the heart from fear of humiliation and death.

The Name is profoundly pure. Its depth is known through lived realization rather than explanation alone.

To live in true trust is to walk a path without losing one’s direction. One meets life with dignity, moves steadily through the journey and develops an enduring relationship with what is right and true.

The Name is profoundly pure. Only one who lives this trust knows its inner meaning.

Through sincere trust, the doorway of liberation opens. Such a life can uplift one’s family and community; the Guru’s teaching carries others toward freedom. One no longer wanders in spiritual dependence or confusion.

The Name is profoundly pure. Its living meaning is experienced inwardly by those who trust and practice it.

Those who have become fully receptive are honored and recognized; their attention rests in the One. Yet the Creator’s work remains beyond counting or measuring.

True support for the world is Dharam, righteous order, born of compassion and sustained by patience. Beyond this earth lie countless other worlds: what could possibly measure their weight or extent? The names, forms, colors and varieties of life are beyond any complete record.

From one creative expression, immeasurable streams of existence arise. Words cannot capture such greatness. Nanak responds with humility: what the Divine wills is good; the Formless One endures.

Countless people recite, love, worship, meditate and practice discipline. Countless study sacred texts, follow the yogic path, explore wisdom, practice generosity, act with courage and hold the Divine in silent devotion.

This great variety cannot be fully counted. Nanak bows in humility: words are too small for the Creator; what pleases the Formless One is good, and that One endures forever.

Just as countless lives seek truth, countless others are lost in greed, cruelty, violence, dishonesty, slander and harmful actions. Nanak names these human failures without pretending to stand above them.

He returns to humility before the immeasurable: what the Formless One wills is good; that Reality remains forever.

There are countless names, places and worlds beyond our reach. Language lets us speak the Name, offer praise, explore knowledge, sing qualities and record teachings; language also gives form to the stories we tell about destiny.

Yet the Source of all expression is not bound by the letters we use. Life unfolds through the Divine Order. As vast as creation is, so is the reach of the Name: no place is empty of the One. Nanak responds with humility and acceptance before the Formless.

Water washes dirt from the body; soap cleans a stained cloth. In a similar way, the mind is cleansed through loving remembrance of the Name. Merely calling oneself virtuous or sinful does not determine the truth of one’s life.

Our actions have consequences: as we sow, so we receive. Nanak reminds us that this unfolding takes place within Hukam, the Divine Order.

Pilgrimages, self-discipline, compassion and generosity have their place, yet their outward rewards are small beside inward transformation. By listening, trusting and loving deeply, one discovers the sacred bathing place within the heart. All true virtues come from the Divine; devotion grows through them.

What hour, day, season or age marked the beginning of creation? Priests, scholars and yogis cannot say with certainty. Only the Creator knows. Many people speak of the Divine, each claiming knowledge, yet the One remains greater than their accounts. Nanak invites humility instead of spiritual pride.

There are worlds below worlds and skies beyond skies. The search for an outer boundary exhausts even the most learned, while sacred traditions offer many descriptions of the One Reality.

If its greatness could be fully written down, we might measure it; but no written account can contain the Creator. Nanak says: call the One great, for only the One knows the full extent of that greatness.

Those who sing Divine praise do not thereby reach the end of the mystery. Rivers flow into the ocean without grasping the ocean’s vastness.

Even a ruler surrounded by unimaginable wealth is spiritually poorer than a humble being who holds the Divine in remembrance.

There is no end to the praise, generosity, vision, listening, activity or creation of the One. No one can discover its farthest limits. Countless people struggle to measure them; the more they say, the more remains beyond words.

The True One is higher than every measure of greatness. Only the One fully knows that greatness. Nanak reminds us that grace is not earned through clever description: it is received through the Divine glance of compassion.

The gifts of the Divine are too many to record. The Giver offers freely, without desire for reward. Countless beings ask; some receive with gratitude, others deny what they have been given, and many suffer hunger, pain or confusion.

Bondage and release unfold within the Divine Order; human pride cannot control them. The One knows whom to bless, though few recognize the Giver. Nanak calls the person gifted with grateful praise truly rich, beyond the wealth of kings.

Priceless are Divine qualities and ways, priceless the gifts, those who receive them and the storehouses from which they come. Priceless are love, justice, grace, generosity and the mysteries of the Divine Order. No words can declare their final worth.

People of every tradition speak of the One: readers of the Vedas and Puranas, teachers, deities, seekers, sages, and countless others. Many have spoken and passed on; still the mystery is inexhaustible. Even if still more worlds and voices appeared, they could never fully measure the One. Nanak says only the True One knows the depth of that Reality.

What is the dwelling of the One who watches over all? Creation itself becomes a vast hymn. Countless instruments, melodies and singers offer praise. Wind, water and fire sing; the forces of justice, sacred beings, contemplatives, scholars, the courageous, the steadfast and the worlds of life all participate in that song.

Many more voices are beyond counting. The Creator is true through every age, giving rise to countless colors, forms and ways of being, and looking upon this unfolding creation. No one commands the One: all remain within the Divine Order.

Let contentment become your earrings, humility your bowl, and meditation the ashes of a yogi. Remember the impermanence of the body; let faith become your walking staff.

Let the companionship of all humanity be your spiritual community, and let mastery of your own mind be your victory over the world. Honor the One: primal, pure, beginningless, unchanging and enduring through every age.

Let understanding nourish you, compassion care for what you receive, and the sacred sound resounding in every heart be your music. Recognize the One who holds creation together; let the pursuit of extraordinary powers lose its attraction.

Meeting and parting are woven into life, and each being receives its share within the Divine Order. Honor the One: primal, pure, beginningless, unchanging and enduring through every age.

The imagery of the three cosmic powers describes creation, preservation and dissolution as expressions within the One Reality. The Divine guides these movements according to Hukam and beholds all, even while remaining beyond their sight.

This is a profound mystery. Honor the One: primal, pure, beginningless, unchanging and enduring through every age.

The Divine Presence and its abundance extend through every realm. What is needed has its source in the timeless creative act. The Creator continues to behold the creation.

Nanak says the work of the True One is true. Honor the One: primal, pure, beginningless, unchanging and enduring through every age.

If a single tongue became countless tongues, and each of those multiplied again, still I would keep repeating the Name of the One. Through loving remembrance, the soul longs to ascend toward union.

Hearing of such a path can awaken imitation or competition in others, but spiritual realization cannot be gained through boasting. Nanak says true fulfillment is received through grace.

I have no independent power to speak or remain silent, to ask or give, to live or die, to gain possessions or authority, to understand or meditate, or to find liberation.

All power belongs to the One who acts and beholds. Nanak says that before this Reality, no one can claim to be inherently higher or lower than another.

The Creator fashioned night and day, seasons, wind, water and fire, and set the earth within this living order as a place for ethical action. Countless beings, names and ways of life fill it. Each life is known through its actions.

The True One is the ground of justice. In the realm of Dharam, lives are recognized according to what they have lived and done. Nanak says this truth becomes clear through realization.

Having described the realm of righteous action, Nanak turns to the realm of knowledge. Here the mind becomes aware of the immense diversity of existence: innumerable elements, worlds, forms, teachers, suns, moons, beings, languages, paths and seekers.

No catalogue can contain all that is. The growth of knowledge brings us closer to wonder rather than to the illusion that everything can be counted.

In the realm of knowledge, insight shines brightly and joy is abundant. Beyond it lies the realm of spiritual refinement, where consciousness is shaped into a beauty that language struggles to express.

There, understanding, discernment, the mind and inner awareness are formed and deepened. What is transformed there reaches beyond ordinary description.

In the realm of grace and spiritual strength dwell beings whose courage comes from the Divine. Their hearts are filled with the One, and they are free from fear and deception. The devoted gather in joy and live in remembrance of Truth.

In the realm of Truth, the Formless One is present and looks upon creation with loving regard. Worlds upon worlds and forms upon forms unfold within Hukam. The Creator beholds this vastness with delight. Nanak says its depth cannot be described.

Make self-discipline your furnace, patience your goldsmith, understanding your anvil and wisdom your tools. Let reverence be the bellows and spiritual effort the fire. Let love be the vessel in which the nectar of the Name is poured.

In this true workshop, the Word is refined and the heart is transformed. This is the work of grace; Nanak says that through the Divine glance, deep fulfillment arises.

Air is the teacher, water the father, and the great earth the mother. Day and night are the two caretakers in whose embrace the world continues its play. Our actions, both helpful and harmful, bear their consequences; by the way we live, we grow nearer to or more distant from Truth.

Those who remember the Name and work sincerely through life shine with dignity. Nanak says their journey also helps many others toward freedom.