INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

performance context. Because of the thematic exploration within the main text, JapJi
Sahib is generally conceived as Guru Nanak’s instruction on the path towards liberation
and some would even say that a recitation of the hymn will grant the same result.
A middle-aged woman exemplified:
All these compositions (banis) are like sweet candies with different
branches. Whichever bani you will swallow you will get a taste of it
[gurbani]. But JapJi Sahib is higher… it will make your ship cross the
ocean of existence (bhavsagar). 442
The first longer poem in Guru Granth Sahib, JapJi Sahib, is believed to open the door
to the sacred teaching included therein. Reciting the hymn is therefore betokening a
good start in any new activity of human life. Adult Sikhs of all categories often adopt
morning routines of reciting the whole JapJi Sahib or at least a few verses before going
to work or starting the housework. 443 Following the structure given in Guru Granth
Sahib JapJi Sahib should be the first gurbani composition rendered in the beginning of
a new day and precede all other recitations. 444 In Sikh ceremonies, a recitation of JapJi
Sahib marks the beginning of life itself: the mulmantra will be the first verse whispered
in the ear of a newborn child. Later on the child will be given a purifying waternectar
(amrit), over which the first five and the last verses of JapJi Sahib have been
recited, before the child is shown to family and friends and incorporated into social
life. According to a popular notion, if one is unable to recite the entire JapJi Sahib due
to illiteracy, illness, or some other reason, one can still obtain its virtues by completing
the first panj pauri, or “five verses” of the composition. If one cannot accomplish
this, then at least the mulmantra should be recited. When this is rendered impossible,
the minimum act would be to repeat the name of God (Vahiguru) 108 times daily. The
rationalization of recitals to a few single words of JapJi Sahib is not believed to reduce
the effects of recitations if propelled by pure devotion, but conceived as practical
methods of adjusting the appropriation of benefits to individual ability. In metaphorical
terms, people would say JapJi Sahib is the milk, panj pauri the cream, and the
opening mulmantra the churned butter of the teaching enshrined in JapJi Sahib which
will impart mental strength, peace, purity, and ultimately liberation.
442
In North Indian bhakti poetry, the familiar image of bhavsagar, “the troubled waters of existence”,
occurs as a metaphor for the cycle of birth and death. In popular beliefs it is said to be a
liminal stage of the human soul between a death and a new rebirth. The foetus in the stomach of
a mother is said to reside in bhavsagar, praying to God for rescue from the ocean. The deity or
Guru will help humans to cross this ocean and safely reach the other side, that is, liberates from
the cycle of rebirths.
443
One woman only devoted herself to recitation of JapJi Sahib and Jap Sahib those days she woke
up early, however she refrained from readings when she got up from bed later in the morning.
444
In the early eighteen century Chaupa Singh Rahit-nama a bath, recitation of JapJi Sahib five
times, a reading of Ardas, and a visit to the gurdwara for offerings and prostration is prescribed
as the daily morning discipline of Sikhs (McLeod 1987: 33).
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008