MAHALA, traditionally pronounced mahalla, appears in Sikh Scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, as a special term to credit the authorship of the compositions of the Gurus recorded in it. Mahala here refers to the person of the Guru specified by a numeral following it which signifies his position in the

AHIMSA. The term ahimsa is formed by adding the negative prefix a to the word himsa which is derived from the Sanskrit root \'han\', i.e. \'to kill\', \'to harm\', or \'to injure\', and means not killing, not harming, not injuring. The commonly used English equivalent \'non-violence\' is inadequate as it

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,

SASTRA NAM MALA PURAN is a versified composition, included in the Dasam Granth. It is acknowledged to be the work of Guru Gobind Singh. The poem lists weapons of war, which are praised as protectors and deliverers. It runs to 1318 verses and covers 98 pages in the Dasam

ANAHATASABDA figures variously in the Guru Granth Sahib as anahadasabad, anahadatura, anahadajhunkara, anahadabain, anahatanada, anahadabani and anahadadhumand in the Dasam Granth as anahadabani and anahadabaja. The word anahata is from the Sanskrit language. It occurs in Pali and Prakrit texts as well. In the Sanskrit original, it implies unstruck; it

GURU GIRARATH KOS is a dictionary of the Guru Granth Sahib compiled by the Nirmala scholar Pandit Tara Singh Narotam. The kos, completed in AD 1889, is in two volumes printed at Rajendra Press, Patiala the first (pp. 702) in 1895 and the second (pp. 706) in 1898. The first

SHABAD (Sanskrit sabda, of obscure etymology) is generally rendered as sound, voice or tone. Another series of meanings includes word, utterance, speech. In distinctive Sikli usage shabad means a hymn or sacred work from the Guru Granth Sahib. In the theological sense, it stands for the `Word` revealed by

ANJULIA (N), by Guru Arjan, is a short composition comprising two hymns entered in the Guru Granth Sahib under Maru musical measure (GG, 1019). This word anjulia (n) is the plural form of Sanskrit anjuli which means the joining together of palms in supplication, reverence or salutation. The word

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

SHABAD (SABAD) HAJARE, also called Hajare de Sabad, is a collection of seven hymns taken from the Guru Granth Sahib and grouped together for the purpose of daily recitation. The title Shabad Hajare occurs nowhere in the Guru Granth Sahib, though it has found its way into breviaries (gutkas)

AD BHAVANI - \'You are called Ad Bhavani, Where do you hide yourself when you have to grant salvation?\' (Gond Namdev, p. 874) The word Ad means \'from the beginning\' and Bhavani is another name of Durga, the wife of Shiva. Thus Ad Bhavani may connote the Shakti of

HAUMAI is a term which recurs frequently in the Guru Granth Sahib in reference to the spiritual state of those who .have not discovered the way of liberation and peace. Literally, the word means `I am`, implying egoism reckoned as a spiritual and moral disease. It is, says Guru Amar