QUDRAT (spelled qudrati in gurbani), a term adopted by Guru Nanak from the Arabic and given a philosophical signification and connotation which, to some extent but with different shades of sense, had till then been conveyed by the milenniaold Indian words prakriti and mdyd. Qudrat, in Arabic, literally means power,

BRAHMA Brahma bom in the navel lotus of Vishnu was called the son of Lotus. (Kama M. 4, p. 1309) Brahma manifested the hymns of the Veda but extended the attachment of maya. (Wadhans M. 3, p. 559) Only the maya of three modes came out from the mouth

RANA SURAT SINGH, an epiclike poem by Bhai Vir Singh published in 1905. This poem of more than fourteen thousand lines is written in blank verse, tried for the first time in Punjabi. With all its protracted search and pang, it is ultimately a poem of complete spiritual certitude, of

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

SALOK MAHALLA 9, i.e. slokas of the composition of Guru Tegh Bahadur, Nanak IX, form the concluding portion of the Guru Granth Sahib, preceding Guru Arjan`s Mundavam (GG, 142629). These slokas are intoned as part of the epilogue when bringing to a close a reading of the Guru Granth

GIAN PRABODH (Guide to Enlightenment), included in Guru Gobind Singh`s Dasam Granth, is a long poem in Braj employing sixteen different metres. It comprises two independent pans, the first, i.e. the introductory one (stanzas 1 to 125), beginning with laudation of the Almighty who is depicted as Supreme, beyond

SALOP SAHASKRITI, title of a composition comprising seventy-one verses incorporated in the Guru Granth Sahib. The term `Sahaskriti` denotes the language form, a mixture of Sanskrit, Pali and Prakrit, in which these slokas have been written. `Gatha` is another word used for `Sahaskriti`. Of the seventy-one verses collected under