BOLE SO NIHAL, SAT SRI AKAL is the Sikh slogan or jaikara (lit. shout of victory.triumph or exultation). It is divided in two parts or phrases. The first, bole so nihal orjo bole so nihal, is a statement meaning “whoever utters (the phrase following) shall be happy, shall be fulfilled,” and the second part sati snakaJ (Eternal is the Holy/ Great Timeless Lord). This Jaikara, first popularized by Guru Gobind Singh, Nanak X, has become, besides being a popular mode of expressing ebullient religious fervour or a mood of joy and celebration, an integral part of Sikh liturgy and is shouted at the end of ardas or prayer, said in sangat or holy congregation.
One of the Sikhs in the sangat, particularly the one leading ardas, shouts the first phrase, jo bole so nihal, in response to which the entire congregation, including in most cases the leading Sikh himself utter in unison sati sn akai in a long drawn full throated shout. The jaikara or slogan aptly expresses the Sikh belief that all victory {jaya or jai) belongs to God, Vahiguru, a belief that is also expressed in the Sikh salutation Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa, Vahiguru ji ki Fateh (Khalsa is of God and to God belongs the victory, or Hail the Guru`s Khalsa! Hail the Guru`s victory!!) In their hour of triumph, therefore, the Sikhs remember sati sn akaJ instead of exulting in their own valour.
Traditionally, the slogan or war cry expressing communal fervour and assent to or enthusiasm for a cause, sat sn akal has been so used through the three hundred year old history of the Sikh people, since the creation of the Khalsa. In a normal situation when two Sikhs meet, they exchange greetings pronouncing Sat Sri Akal thus pointing out the glory of God to each other. Although as a salutation it is by now the established form of Sikh greeting, it does not have the sanction of history or orthodoxy. Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa Vahiguru ji ki Fateh, the other form of salutation, is generally used only by people punctilious in the observance of proper form.
Those addressing a Sikh religious congregation will, as a rule, greet the audience with the salutation, Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa Vahiguru ji ki Fateh. Sat Sri Akal shouted in unison responding to the call Jo bole so nihal (whoever so pronounces shall prosper) is a call to action, or expression of ecstatic joy or an invocation for Divine aid or succour. While sat or sati (Sanskrit satya) means `true`, `good`, `abiding`, `real` and `eternal`, sri is an honorific denoting beauty, glory, grace or majesty. Sati has the sanction of Guru Nanak`s Mul Mantra in the Japu where after Ik Onkar, it appears as a constituent of Satinamu (Reality Eternal). Akal also occurs in Mul Mantra in the phrase Akal Murati (Form Eternal), descriptive of the Absolute.
Akal as the Divine name appealed particularly to Guru Gobind Singh, as his philosophical vision of the cosmos and the human life centred around this concept. Akal means `Timeless` or `Transcending Time.` Time being the consuming element, making for birth, decay and death, in Guru Gobind Singh`s vision the most essential attribute lying at the core of human conception of the Divine is Its timeless quality. Kal is Sanskrit for time and in common parlance stands for death more precisely, the inevitable hour of death. Fear being fear of death basically, in Guru Gobind Singh`s metaphysical thinking and moral philosophy, to make the Timeless the centre of one`s faith is the way to banish fear and to make heroes of ordinary mortals.
Consequently, the inevitability of death and the futility of fear are among the principal themes of Guru Gobind Singh`s teaching. In his compositions there are several verbal formations from kal (time) which express his vision. God is Sarab Kal (Lord of All Time). Akal Purakh (the Eternal Pervasive Reality) and has all the attributes arising from His quality of Timelessness. Guru Gobind Singh`s principal composition of adoration is entitled Akal Ustati (Laudation of the Timeless).
In places, the Guru has identified God with Time or AllTime, that is eternity.The opening line of one of his hymns reads: keval kal i kartar (the AllTime, i.e. the Eternal alone is the Creator).This by implication repudiates the claim of Brahma, one aspect of the Hindu trinity or of other deities, to be the true creator. Akal occurs at four places in the Varan of Bhai Gurdas. In each context it conveys the sense of God the Eternal, Timeless.
By the time of Bhai Gurdas, whose active life spanned the periods of Guru Arjan and Guru Hargobind, this term was familiar and well established in the Sikh tradition, and consequently when Guru Gobind Singh picked it out to make it the vehicle for expressing his deepest inspiration, he was only enriching a concept already a constituent of the philosophical milieu of the Sikh people.
As reported by the royal news writer, when in 1699 the new initiation by amritwas introduced by Guru Gobind Singh, for days afterwards the whole atmosphere around Anandpur, the venue of the baptismal ceremonies, was resounding with cries of Akal, Akal. This referred to the shouts of Sat Sri Akal incessantly raised by the converts to the Khalsa faith filled with new fervour. In subsequent times, after the Sikhs acquired political power in the Punjab, the seal of the Sikh chiefs would bear the inscription, Akal Sahai (Akal be our Succourer).
The most militant section of the Sikh crusaders, the Nihangs were called Akalis (followers of Akal).During the early 1920`s, when the Sikh people were fired with a new reformist and patriotic zeal, the party spearheading these programmes took to itself the name Akali, which is politically still a viable term. The Sikh form of greeting or salutation has its individual significance and character. It is different from the Islamic salutation in which blessings of peace are sought for each other (sa/am `alaikum, wa`alaikum salam).
It is distinct also from Indian greetings (namaste or namaskar) which aim at paying homage or respects to the person addressed.The Sikh greeting exchanged with folded hands on either side in mutual courtesy and respect is essentially an utterance of laudation to the Timeless and an expression of faith in human unity and dignity. Over the years, the boundaries between the Sikh slogan and Sikh greeting have become interlocked. Sat sn akal which is part of the Sikh slogan is now the general form of Sikh greeting. This has usurped the place of the more formal and proper salutation which also carries the sanction of Sikh theological postulates, i.e.
Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa Vahiguru ji ki Fateh. The Sikh mode of salutation has gone through a longdrawn process of evolution.The earliest form of Sikh salutation was Pain Fauna. In one of the life accounts of Guru Nanak known as Adi Sakhian, the injunction is said to have come down from the Almighty Himself. One day, it is recorded, the Formless (Nirankar) called Baba Nanak into His presence and said : Nanak, I am greatly pleased with you … Listen Nanak. I do, hereby, ordain a separate Order of yours.
In the Kaliyug I shall be known as the True Lord and you as the Preceptor Lord … And, I bless you with a unique Order. The greeting of your order shall be Pain Fauna (I bow at your feet), whereas the greeting of the Vaisnavas shall be Ram Kishan, of the Sannyasis, Om Namo Narayanaya, of the Yogis, Adesa, and of the Muhammdans, Salam `Alaikum.But 0 Nanak, all those who come into your fold, shall greet one another with Pain Fauna, the reply in each case being Satguru Ko Fain Fauna. This quotation is from a seventeenth century compilation.
We have still an earlier testimony vouchsafing that in the early days of Sikhism, the Sikhs had, as their greeting, Fain Fauna and the practice of touching each other`s feet. Bhai Gurdas, a contemporary of the Fifth and Sixth Gurus, mentions the practice of painpauna, i.e. touching the feet, in very clear terms. He writes : (In the Court of Guru Nanak) The Ruler and the pauper were equal.He brought into vogue the practice of bowing at each other`
s feet. What a wonderful feat the Beloved wrought! Lo, the head bows at the feet. *** Do not give up the practice of bowing at others` feet.
For in the Kaliyug this is the path. *** A Sikh should adopt the practice of bowing at another`s feet ; He should listen to the advice of the (other) Gursikh, and ponder over what he says. These examples can be multiplied and even supplemented with sakhis (stories) from the Puratan Janam 5aJchfand even from the Janam Sakhi of Guru Nanak by Miharban.Both these life accounts contain numerous stories to show the prevalence of this form of greeting at an early stage of the evolution of the Sikh Panth. In the Bala Janam Sakhi occurs a different form of greeting.
Instead of Pain Fauna of the Puratan cycle and of the Miharban tradition, we have here, Kartar Kartar (Creator! Creator!) meaning let us bow to the Lord, and Sat Kartar (Creator is True). This, we are told, was anterior to the former. Even Miharban himself writes: At that time whosoever of the Sikhs came, he did not greet others with the word, Pairi Pae Ji, nor would the addressee say, Satguru Ko Pairi Pauna. On the contrary, whosoever came, he would greet others saying, “Kartar, Kartar, 0` Sikhs of the Guru, Kartar, Kartar.” All the Sikhs who came to Guru Nanak, too greeted him saying, “Kartar, Kartar.”
The congregation was known as the Kartaris. Supporting evidence may be found in Guru Nanak naming the town he raised on the bank of the River Ravi, Kartarpur. Besides, we have the testimony of Zulfikar Ardistani, author of the famous Persian work DabistaniMazahib. He lived during the time of the Sixth Guru. He has left us a graphic account ofNanakpanthis or Sikhs of his time. He records in his book that the followers of Guru Nanak were known as Kartaris. This obviously refers to their practice of repeating Kartar Kartar on meeting each other.
So Kartar Kartar is the first form of greeting which became prevalent in Sikhism. It was, however, soon replaced with Pain Pauna.It is recorded in Adi Sakhian that when Bhai Lahina came from Guru Nanak back to Mate di Sarai, Takht Mall, a close associate of Bhai Lahina came to see him. Bhai Lahina, who had by now become Guru Angad, wanted to receive him with an embrace. But Takht Mall avoided this saying, “You are back from a place of great reverence. I stand to gain by bowing at your feet (and not hugging).” This probably was the beginning of the new form of greeting.
And, the practice spread. It touched its zenith at Amritsar, the town founded by Guru Ram Das. The Guru had encouraged people from all castes, high and low, and from all classes, to come and settle in the new town. All of them greeted each other with Pain Pauna and touched one another`s feet.This practice continued for a long time ; and even today it is not unlikely that one would be greeted by an old citizen with the words Pain Pauna Ji, razi ho” (I bow at your feet, Sir, how do you do ?). The next vital change occurred when the Tenth Guru created the Khalsa.
Since Guru Gobind Singh wanted a complete transformation of Sikh society, he ordered the overhauling of two fundamental institutions of the Sikhs. The first was the substitution of Khande di Pahul for Charan Pahul and the second was the substitution of Vahiguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vahiguru Ji Ki Fateh for Pairi Pauna.Sarup Das Bhalla, Mahima Prakash, describes the end of the custom of the Charan Pahul graphically in the following verse: The Guru collected the washings of his feet in ajar, Sealed its mouth with wax, And consigned it to the River Sutlej In its place he now ordained Khande di Pahul Thus, the practice of administering Charan Pahul was discarded and along with it was discarded the former mode of greet ing.
Pairi Pauna. In its place the Panth was now given a new salutation, a new form of greeting, VahiguruJi Ka Khalsa VahiguruJi Ki Fateh (Khalsa belongs to God, and to Him alone belongs the Victory).The proper salutation for. the Khalsa VahiguruJi Ka Khalsa VahiguruJi Ki Fateh was made current among the Sikhs by command of Guru Gobind Singh at the time of manifestation of the Khalsa in 1699. Vahiguru (also spelt Vahguru) is expressive of wonder or ecstasy at Divine infinitude or glory. Vahiguru has become the most characteristic name for God in the Sikh creed, like Allah in Islam.
It occurs in the Guru Granth Sahib (Savaiyyas by Bhatt Gayand, p. 1402) repeated ecstatically as a. mantra. In the compositions of Guru Arjan (GG, 376), it is used in the inverted form as Gur Vahu. Bhai Gurdas in his Varan has used it as being synonymous with the absolute, the Creator in a number of places (I. 49, IV. 17, vi. 5, IX. 13, XI. 3 and 8, XII. 17, XIII. 2, XXIV. 1, XL. 22).This prolific use by one whose philosophical exposition of Sikh metaphysics and mysticism is the earliest on record indicates that by the time of Guru Arjan (the Savaiyyas referred to above were also composed by poets, Bhatts, attending on him) Vahiguru as the Sikh name for God was well established and had acquired the overtones which have since been associated with it as expression of the Sikh monotheistic affirmation of faith.
Because of this close and inalienable association.Guru Gobind Singh, at the time of introducing the new form of initiation with adjuration to the initiates to maintain a stern moral discipline and to cultivate qualities of crusaders and martyrs for the faith, administered the new faith in terms of the name of God which was held in the highest reverence in the tradition handed down to him.The new form of salutation, which annulled all the previous ones till then prevalent in Sikh society, was enunciation as VahiguruJi Ka Khalsa VahiguruJi Ki Fateh the Khalsa is the Lord`s own: to the Lord is the Victory.
This twofold affirmation was, in the first place, expression of a special relationship between God and those who dedicated their entire life to His service. Second, it was the expression ofthatfaith in the ultimate triumph of the forces of goodness which, despite all apparent setbacks, trials and travail, is the just and essential end of the fight between good and evil in the world. This faith has been asserted over and over again by Guru Nanak and his spiritual successors.After being administered amrit (water stirred with a twoedged dagger, sanctified by recitation of the Guru`s word and thus transmuted into the elixir of immortality), each initiate was adjured to raise the affirmation, VahiguruJi Ka Khalsa VahiguruJi Ki Fateh ! This was duly repeated, and the tradition continues till this day.
Apart from being used as the affirmation of faith, this formula is also the orthodox approved Sikh form of salutation. Two terms in this formula need elucidation. Khalsa is an Arabic word, meaning, literally, `pure` and used in the administration terminology of the Muslim State system in India for lands or fiefs directly held by the sovereign and not farmed out to landlords on conditions of military service and of making over to the State a share of the produce. In the term Khalsa, both these meanings are discerned.
In one of Guru Hargobind`s Hukamnamas and in one of Guru Tegh Bahadur`s, Khalsa is used for the Guru`s devotees, with the implication particularly as `the Guru`s Own !` As Guru Gobind Singh adopted the term and gave it centrality in the enunciation of the creed, the idea of purity perhaps came to acquire primacy. Khalsa occurs also in the Guru Granth Sahib (GG, 654), where it is used in the sense of`pure`, `emancipated.` This term appealed to Guru Gobind Singh as being truly expressive of the vision of a noble, heroic race of men that he was creating.
Fateh, fath in Arabic, literally means opening or forcing the portal of a besieged fort, implying victory. It has been used in the Qur`an in the sense of victory, and one of the attributive names of God in the Muslim tradition is Fatih (lit. Opener, i.e. Vanquisher over all evil forces).While jai, jaikar have been used in the Sikh tradition for victory and are used thus even in the Dasam Granth, jai was dropped from the new Sikh tradition, though for shouts of vic
tory the term jaikara has become firmly established. Fateh was adopted as the current popular term for triumph or victory and made part of the Sikh affirmation and salutation.
Fateh as fatih occurs once in the Guru Granth Sahib (GG, 258). “PhaAe kate mite gavan fatih bhai mani jit the noose ofYama hath been cleft, transmigration hath ceased and, with the conquest of the self, true victory hath been achieved.” The implied meaning here is of a moral victory.Jit, a word from Indian tradition, likeJ`aikara had got established also in Sikh tradition, and in the invocation Panth kiJit (Victory to the Panth) is repeated in the Sikh congregational prayer daily.
Fateh nonetheless remains the prime Sikh term for victory, and has been repeated again and again in Sikh history, down from the Persian couplet put on Sikh coins (DegoTeghoFateh`enusrat bedarang, yaft az Nanak Guru Gobind Singh) to the common daily parlance of the Sikh people, wherein every success is designated as fateh.
References :
1. Piar Singh, ed., Adi Sakhiari. Amritsar, 1983
2. Kirpal Singh, Janam Sakhi Prampara. Patiala, 1969
3. Narain Singh, Varan Bhai GurdasJi Satik. Amritsar, 1960
4. Kahn Singh, Bhai, Gurmat Martand. Amritsar, 1938
5. Ganda Singh, Hukamname. Patiala, 1967
6. Kapur Singh, ParasarapraSna. Amritsar, 1989
7. Macauliffe, M.A., The Sikh Religion. Oxford, 1909
8. Cole, W. Owen and Piara Singh Sambhi, The Sikhs: Their Religious Beliefs and Practices. Delhi, 1978
Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal: A Call of Faith and Victory in Sikhism
Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal is a powerful and iconic Sikh slogan that resonates with spiritual fervor and the essence of Sikh identity. Deeply rooted in Sikh tradition and philosophy, the phrase is not just a rallying cry but a declaration of truth, resilience, and unwavering faith in Waheguru (God). It unites the Sikh community in their shared devotion and commitment to living by the teachings of the Guru.
Meaning of the Phrase
The slogan consists of two parts:
- Bole So Nihal: This translates to “One who speaks (the words of faith) shall be blessed.” It serves as a joyful proclamation of faith and assurance that those who remain steadfast in their beliefs will find fulfillment and divine blessings.
- Sat Sri Akal: This translates to “Truth is the Timeless One.” It is a declaration of the eternal truth and glory of Waheguru, emphasizing that God is beyond time and remains unchanging and infinite.
Together, the phrase embodies the Sikh ideals of truth, spirituality, and the divine connection.
Historical Significance
Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal gained prominence during the time of Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Sikh Guru and the founder of the Khalsa in 1699. It became the battle cry of the Khalsa warriors, reflecting their unwavering courage, spiritual strength, and commitment to justice. The slogan inspired Sikhs to stand united and fight against tyranny and oppression, knowing that they were upholding divine truth.
The call served as a unifying force in the community, reminding Sikhs of their collective purpose and the presence of Waheguru in all their endeavors.
Spiritual and Social Importance
Declaration of Truth: The phrase affirms the central Sikh belief in living by truth and recognizing the timeless and universal presence of Waheguru. It reinforces the importance of aligning one’s life with divine will (Hukam).
Community Unity: The call strengthens the sense of unity and identity within the Sikh community. When one person proclaims “Bole So Nihal,” others respond with “Sat Sri Akal,” creating a shared moment of faith and connection.
- Resilience and Courage: The slogan is a reminder of the resilience required to face life’s challenges with courage and faith. It embodies the Sikh principle of standing for justice and righteousness, even in the face of adversity.
- Celebration of Spirituality: Whether recited during religious gatherings, celebrations, or moments of communal strength, Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal serves as a joyous expression of faith and devotion.
Modern Relevance
Today, Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal continues to hold immense significance for Sikhs worldwide. It is chanted during religious ceremonies, processions, and public gatherings, uniting the community in their shared faith and heritage. The phrase remains a source of inspiration, reminding Sikhs of their spiritual roots and their responsibility to live by the values of truth, service, and justice.
Conclusion
Bole So Nihal, Sat Sri Akal is more than just a slogan; it is a profound expression of Sikh faith, identity, and unity. It echoes the timeless principles of truth and justice while inspiring individuals to live with courage, devotion, and resilience. As a spiritual and cultural emblem of Sikhism, it continues to uplift and empower the Sikh community, connecting them to their rich heritage and the eternal presence of Waheguru.
