SALOP SAHASKRITI

SALOP SAHASKRITI, title of a composition comprising seventy-one verses incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib. The term `Sahaskriti` denotes the language form, a mixture of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit, in which these slokas have been written. `Gatha` is another word used for `Sahaskriti`. Of the seventy-one verses collected under the title Salok Sahaskriti, sixty-seven are of the composition of Guru Arjan and the remaining four of Guru Nanak. Terse and cryptic in style and the favorites of classical scholars such as the Nirmalas, these verses denounce ritualism and hypocritical religious behavior and present loving devotion and absorption in the Divine Nam as the true ideal.

They call attention to the futility of formal practices and ceremonial, and impress upon man constantly to meditate upon His Nam, for this is the only `treasure` which will last and which will procure him release from bondage. The grace of God and help of the Guru are necessary prerequisites for this. It is the succor of the Guru and company of the holy that drive away sins and evils which nullify man`s spirituality. God is the only Reality: He is most beautiful, He is eternal, perfect, full of virtues, sustainer of all, sublime, high, all knowing, beyond comprehension, illimitable, beloved of the devotees and their protector.

He banishes darkness, destroys evil and sins; He places those who are at the tail in the front, raises hope in the hopeless, makes the penniless wealthy, cures all maladies; He is the fountainhead of mercy, guide of the world, protector of the helpless. The holy man, the perfect saint is he who meditates on Him, takes woe and weal alike and whose life is pure and without rancor; who is compassionate to all and has rid himself of all the five deadly sins; who subsists on God`s praises and who abides in the world untouched by it as lotus in the water.

References :

1. Sabdarath Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Amritsar. 1969
2. Sahib Singh, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan. Jalandhar, 1962-69
3. Kohli, Surindar Singh, A Critical Study of Adi Granth. Delhi, 1961
4. Macauliffe, M. A., The Sikh Religion : Its Gurus, Sacred Writings and Authors. Oxford, 1909
5. Gurbachan Singh Talib, tr., Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Patiala, 1991