AMARNAMA, a Persian work comprising 146 verses composed in AD 1708 by Bhai Natth Mall, a dhadi or balladeer who lived from the time of Guru Hargobind to that of Guru Gobind Singh, Nanak X. The manuscript of the work in Gurmukhi script obtained from Bhai Fatta, ninth in descent

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

GIAN (Skt.jnana), knowledge, understanding or consciousness, is what differentiates human beings from the animal world and establishes the superiority of homo sapiens over the other species. Nature has not only provided man with a qualitatively superior brain but has also endowed human mind with a dynamic inner stimulus called jagiasa

GOKHU MAHITA, BHAI, Bhai Toda Mahita. Bhai Tota and Bhat Maddu, all devoted Siklis who performed dedicated service at the time of the excavation of the sacred tank at Amritsar, once came to Guru Arjan and begged to be instructed. The Guru told them to sit in the sangal

GULAB SINGH GHOLIA, SANT (1853-1936), Sikh saint and scholar, was born in 1853 to Bhai Dal Singh and Dharam Kaur of Bhattivala, a village 6 km south of Bhavamgarh, in the present Sarigrur district of the Punjab. He received his early education in the village dharamsald, and then spent five

JAITA, BHAI. See JIVAN SINGH, BHAI JAITA SETH, BHAI, a devout Sikh of Guru Hargobind`s time, was a brave warrior. He stood guard at the Guru`s door and humbly served the visiting Sikhs. According to Bhai Man! Singh, Sikhdn di Bhagat Maid, he once said to Guru Hargobind, "0

KHALSA MAHIMA, literally praise of the Khalsa, is a short poem by Guru Gobind Singh inserted at the end of the thirty-three Savaiyyc in the Dasam Granth. The language is Braj Bhasa, i.e. medieval Hindi of the Mathura Agra region. The setting is provided by an incident which occurred

PRAVRTTIMARGA : NIVRTTIMARGA. In ancient religious texts four madrsas or paths or roads to life are demarcated: the path of action for personal gratification, leading to sensuous pleasures (cf. J5GXVI. 16); (ii) the path of action in the form of observance of religious rituals, with a view to reaping the