MAN or mana, from Skt. manas (mind or psyche), is one of the major operational con cepts in Indian thought involved in the process of apprehending facts and reacting to situations and stimuli, as also the cause of bandh (bondage/attachment). `Mind` is the nearest English rendering of `man`, though

ALAHNIAN, Guru Nanak\'s composition in measure Vadahans in the Guru Granth Sahib. Alahni, generally used in its plural form alahnian, is a dirge wailingly sung in chorus by women mourning the death of a relation. Etymologically, the word means an utterance in praise (of the departed person). The sorrowful

MARU VAR, Guru Arjan`s composition in the Maru musical measure in the Guru Granth Sahib. Traditionally, Maru which gives the Vdr its title is elegiac verse and is commonly sung in the afternoon. This measure has a martial undertone as well. The singing of Maru rdga with devotion annuls

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

MAYA, written and pronounced in Punjabi as maid. As a philosophic category in the Indian tradition, Maya is interpreted variously as a veil or curtain concealing reality; the phenomenal world as it appears over against things in themselves; the grand illusion or the cosmic principle of illusion. Maya is

ACROSTIC :At the age of seven Guru Nanak went to school and the schoolmaster wrote the alphabet on a wooden tablet for Nanak. After just one day Nanak copied the alphabet from memory and made an acrostic on the alphabet. The acrostic called the Patti or tablet in the

MAYYA, BHAI, a Khullar Khatri, is mentioned among the prominent Sikhs of the time of Guru Ram Das. According to Bhai Mani Singh, Sikhdn di Bhagat Maid, Bhai Mayya along with Bhai Japa and Bhai Nayya, both of the Khullar clan, and Bhai Tulsa, a Vohra Khatri, once waited

AVTAR SINGH AZAD Avtar Singh \'Azad\', (1906 - 1972) the minor Punjabi poet, is not deserving of notice. Before independence, he had published four collections of poems, Swant Bundan (Drops of Bliss), Savan Pinghan (The Swings of Savan), Vishva Vedna (Plight of the World) and Kansoan (Intimations), and published

MIAN MITTHA, a Muslim holyman living in a village which came to be called Kotia Miari Mittha in the present Sialkot district of Pakistan Punjab, met Guru Nanak as the latter was passing through his village. The two held a discourse. According to Purdtan Janam Sdkhi, Miari Mittha observed

BACHITRA NATAK (bachitra = marvellous, wondrous + natak = drama, play) is the name given a complex of compositions, commonly attributed to Guru Gobind Singh, the Tenth Guru or prophet teacher of the Sikh faith, assembled in his book, the Dasam Granth: hence, the name dasam (tenth) granth (book), i.e.

MOH, from Sanskrit root muh meaning "to become stupefied, to be bewildered or perplexed, to err, to be mistaken," stands in ancient texts for perplexity or confusion as also for the cause of confusion, that is, avidyd or ajndna (ignorance or illusion). In another context, it stands for "the

BAANA: Literally: dress. In Sikh cultural terminology it means all the five Kakaars (articles of faith) plus a Chola (a long shirt), a tight fitting trousers, a Kamarkassa (a belt to tighten Gaatra and like a sash around the waist) which make one very active. This was actually a dress