FIVE KHANDS or Panj Khands, lit. realms (panj == five, khand == region or realm), signifies in the Sikh tradition the five stages of spiritual progress leading man to the Ultimate Truth. The supporting text is a fragment from Guru Nanak`s Japu, stanzas 34 to 37. The Five Realms enumerated

SUKHMANI, titled Gauri Sukhmani in the Guru Granth Sahib after the musical measure Gauri to which it belongs, is a lengthy composition by Guru Arjan which many include in their daily regimen of prayers. The site, once enclosed by a dense wood, where it was composed around AD 160203,

Guru Nanak (1469-1539) represents the highest point of Punjabi literature, it has reached so far. Not because he is the first preceptor of the; religion of the Sikhs who are to this day staunch champions of Punjabi literature, the excellence in its own right, though it is available to us

VAHIGURU, also spelt and pronounced Vahguru, is the distinctive name of the Supreme Being in the Sikh dispensation, like Yahweh in Judaism and Allah in Islam. In Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, the term does not figure in the compositions of the Gurus, though it occurs therein, both as

HUKAM, Arabic hukm for command, order, decree, law, has acquired in Sikh usage a metaphysical shade connoting the Divine Law or Order, regulating the entire universe. Its importance in Sikh theology is indicated by its occurrence at the very beginning of the Adi Granth (Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh

VAR SUHI KI, in the measure Suhi, is one of Guru Amar Das` four vars in die Guru Grandi Sahib. Suha in Punjabi means red or scarlet, and this being the colour of a bride`s dress in India, die word signifies the consecrated lives of the true devotees of

JAITSAIILMAHALA 5 VARSLOKANNALI, by GuruArjan, is one of the twenty-two Vdrs, i.e. compositions in this folk form but moulded to a spiritual theme, included in the Guru Granth Sahib. It has been named Jaitsari because of the musical measure it belongs to. While the philosophical standpoint in the entire

YUGAS (AGES): In all the four ages, the True Bani (Divine hymns) is the ambrosia.(Dhanasan M. 3, p- 665) In all the four ages, they are seiled and full of dilt, whose mouths do not utter the Name of the Lord.(Sri Raga M. l, p. 57) The Yugas (ages)

KAFI (Arabic Qafi), literally stands for the leader, the enlightener, one who fulfils the need. In poetics it denotes the refrain in a song or hymn, and is also the title given to a poetic form in Arabic as well as in Indian literature. Guru Nanak was the first to

AKAL MURATI, a composite term comprising akal (non temporal) and murati (image or form), occurring in the Mul Mantra, the root formula or fundamental creed of the Sikh faith as recorded at the beginning of the Japu, composition with which the Guru Granth Sahib opens, literally means `timeless image`. Elsewhere,

KARMA, THE DOCTRINE OF, closely connected with the theory of rebirth and transmigration, is basic to the religious traditions of Indian origin such as Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism and Sikhism. The term karam, as it is spelt in Punjabi and as it occurs in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, has

AKALPURAKH stands in Sikh religious literature for the Divine Being, i.e. God. Like Akal, Murati, it is composed of two units, viz. akal (non temporal) and purakh (person). The latter figures in Mul Mantra, the preamble to Guru Nanak`s Japu, in conjunction with Xarta (Creator), the whole expression implying