GURMAT SANGIT or sacred music of the Sikhs. The founder of the Sikh religion, Guru Nanak (1469-1539), composed his religious verse to settings of Indian ragas mostly from the classical tradition. Successive Gurus followed his example and considered divine worship through music the best means of attaining that state which

PANTH, from Sanskrit patha, pathin, or pantham, means literally a way, passage or path and, figuratively, away of life, religious creed or cult. In Sikh terminology, the word panth stands for the Sikh faith as well as for the Sikh people as a whole. It represents the invisible mystic body

GURU, a spiritual guide or preceptor. The term, long used in the Indian religious tradition, has a special connotation in the Sikh system. The Sikh faith itself signifies discipleship, the word sikh (sisya in Sanskrit and sissa or sekha in Pali) meaning pupil or learner. The concept of Guru,

SIKH COSMOLOGY. From the very beginning man has been curious to know about the structure and constitution of the Universe and its origin. To locate the stable base of this universe and to fix his own place in it have been the subjects of his constant search and speculation for

GANA The Ganas, Gandharvas, Siddhas and saints...are engaged in uttering the infinite Praises of the Unapproachable and Unfathomab\'" Lord. (Devgandhari M. 5, p. 535) The Ganas and Gandharvas were emancipated through the remembrance of the Name of the Lord..... (Malar M. 3, p. 1259) Ganas or Gana-Devatas are the

SLOKAS OF SHAIKH FARID. Baba Shaikh Farid GanjiShakar (1173-1264), the famous Sufi saint born in the Punjab, some of whose compositions are included in the Guru Granth Sahib, was a poet whose Punjabi verses form the first recorded poetry in the Punjabi language. Guru Nanak himself seems to have

HEMA, BHAI, a devout Sikh of Guru Tegh Bahadur, along with his brother (Nagahia) and father (Lakkhi Shah) and another person by the name of Naik, son of Kahna, brought the headless body of Guru Tegh Bahadur, after he was executed at Delhi`s Chandni Chowk under imperial orders, to

SUNDAR SINGH LYALLPURI, MASTER (1885-1969), teacher, journalist and politician, was born on 4 April 1885, the son of Lakhmir Singh Kamboj and Ram Kaur, of the village of Bahorii, 12 km south of Amritsar. The family later moved to the canal colony in Sheikhupura district where they founded a

Haimanchal, Himachala (HIMALAYAS, HIVALAY) If the body is wasted away in Haimanchal (Himalayas), still the malady of the mind persists (Sri Raga M. l, p. 62) Though one may go to millions of pilgrim stations, one may waste away his body in Hivalay (Himalayas), he cannot equal the merk

SYMBOLISM. The poetry of the Guru Granth Sahib is noteworthy especially for the wealth and variety of its images and symbols. The Gurus and sants whose compositions form part of the Holy Book have rendered their mystical and spiritual experience in the idiom of poetry. A large number of similes

INDRA Millions of Indras serve the Lord. (Bhairo Kabir, p. 1163) Indra was ordered and it rained heavily. (Var Malar M. l, M. 3, p. 1281) One has to die ultimately in Indra Purt. (Gauri M. 5, p. 237) Indra received the punishment of one thousand marks of disgrace

UDA, BHAl (d. 1688), a Sikh of the Rathaur Rajput clan, was among those who had witnessed Guru Tegh Bahadur`s execution at Delhi. He returned in distress to Dilvali Mohalla where Sikhs from the neighbourhood assembled in the house of Bhai Nanu, the calico printer, to consider how they could