GHORIAN, hymns by Guru Ram Das in measure Vadahans in the Guru Granth Sahib. The word `ghondn` in Punjabi is tlie plural form of ghon, a mare. In Punjabi folk poetry, a type of lyrical songs which are sung on the occasion of marriage are called ghondn. A Punjabi

SAN GAT, Punjabi form of the Sanskrit term sarigti, means company, fellowship, association. In Sikh vocabulary, the word has a special connotation. It stands for the body of men and women met religiously, especially in (lie presence of the Guru Granth Sahib. Two other expressions carrying the same connotation

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

SARBATT DA BHALA, literally. Weal to all... Weal to everyone. This is the concluding line which marks the finale or arc/as or supplicatory prayer, with which every Sikh service or ceremony concludes. The full couplet reads : Nanak nam charhdikala tere bhane sarbatt da bhala (May God`s Name, may the

SORATHI KI VAR, or Ragu Sorathi Var Mahale Chauthe KI as is the full title recorded at the head of the text in the Guru Granth Sahib contrasting the short title in the index, is one of the eight vars composed by Guru Ram Das. It comprises twenty-nine pauns, i.e.

ISAR or Isvar, a Gorakhpanthi yogi, who according to Miharbdn Janam Sdkhl, met Guru Nanak at Sumer mountain in company with a group of Nath ascetics and engaged in a discourse with him. Bhai Gurdas, Varan, I. 39, mentions Achal Vatala, outside of Batala, in present day Gurdaspur district

SRI SATIGURU Jl DE MUHAIN DJAN SAKHIAN, i.e. witnesses or instructions from the lips of the venerable Guru himself, is the title of a manuscript, preserved in Gurdwara Manji Sahib at Kiratpur in the Sivaliks by the granthi, Babu Singh, who claims descent from Bibi Rup Kaur, adopted daughter of

JIVANMUKTA, in Sikhism the ideal and aim or objective of man`s spiritual life. The term is derived from jivanmukti {j`tvan=`ife; mukli=recasc, liberation, emancipation, freedom from bondage), and means one who has attained liberation from human bondage or one who has attained to the highest spiritual slate of being in tune

TEGH BAHADUR, GURU (1621-1675), prophet and martyr, revered as the Ninth Guru or Revealer of the Sikh faith, was the youngest of the five sons of the Sixth Guru, Guru Hargobind, and his wife, Nanaki. He was born at Amritsar on Baisakh vadl5,1678 Bk/ 1 April 1621. The early years

MALUK DAS was a long-lived Vaisnava saint who spanned the reigns of the Mughal emperors from Akbar to Aurangzib. He was widely venerated and counted among his admirers and followers, Muslims as well as Hindus. He lived at Kara, on the right bank of the River Ganga, in Allahabad

VAR MAJH KI, by Guru Nanak occurs in the musical measure Majh, in the Guru Granth Sahib. The word majh, in Punjabi, means in the middle or midway, and the raga which goes by this name was a folk tune of Majha, the central country of die Punjab, which