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Japji Sahib — The Morning Prayer of Guru Nanak

c. 1499–1539 CE (Guru Nanak); compiled in Adi Granth 1604 CE · Early Modern India (early 16th century CE) · Punjab (northern India)

The Mool Mantar — The Root Statement

1There is one God,

2whose name is Truth,

3the Creator, without fear, without hate,

4immortal, unborn, self-existent,

5known by the Guru's grace.

6True in the beginning, true throughout the ages,

7true even now, O Nanak, and true he shall ever be.

Stanza I — How Shall Truth Be Attained

8By thinking he cannot be comprehended, though I think a hundred thousand times;

9by keeping silent he is not attained, though I hold my tongue continually;

10by fasting the hunger for him is not appeased,

11though I load myself with the burdens of all the worlds.

12Man's cleverness cannot avail him, nor a thousand wiles.

13How then shall Truth be attained?

14How shall the veil of untruth be rent?

15O Nanak: Walk in the will of God as it is inscribed upon thee from the beginning.

Stanza III — The Vastness of the Praise

16Innumerable are those who praise Him, and innumerable those who know Him.

17Innumerable those who worship Him,

18and innumerable those who bow before Him.

19Innumerable the good, and innumerable the fools.

20Innumerable the thieves and the eaters of what is not theirs;

21innumerable also those who slay by force.

22Innumerable the sinners who commit sins,

23and innumerable the liars, who trap themselves in their lies.

24Innumerable the ungrateful, who abandon the giver;

25and innumerable the fools, blind and dark of mind.

26Nanak: The lowest of the low may be lifted up by Truth,

27as by the touch of the alchemist's stone.

Stanza IV — The Song of Praise

28The pilgrim tirths, the austerities, the mercy and giving of alms —

29all these may earn as much merit as a mustard seed,

30but by hearing, by faith, by loving in the mind,

31the seeker is cleansed by bathing in the sacred pool of the self.

Stanza VI — By Hearing

32By hearing, one becomes as a Siddha, an adept, a Pir, and a King.

33By hearing, the blind find the way.

34By hearing, the unfathomable is fathomed.

35O Nanak: The saints are ever in bliss;

36pain and sin are cast far from them.

Stanza XVI — The Doctrine of Karma

37All beings suffer according to the deeds they have done.

38Those who have done good in their previous births receive good in this.

39Those who have done evil in their previous births receive evil in this.

40Truth is the highest of all things,

41but higher still is the man who lives truthfully.

Stanza XX — The Filth of the Mind

42The hands, feet, and body may be foul —

43wash them with water, and the filth is gone.

44The clothes are stained with impurity —

45wash them with soap, and they become clean.

46But the mind stained with untruth —

47the color of that stain fades not by washing.

48O Nanak: Only by the love of the Divine Name may the mind be purified.

Stanza XXVII — The Great Time

49By what door shall I enter?

50By what praise shall I sing His praise, who is beyond all speech?

51There is a countless variety of instruments; the sound of them all is His.

52The winds, the fires, the rains, the seasons, the day, the night —

53all these are the makers of His praise.

54The gates of heaven, the earth, the underworld — all are the makers of His praise.

55Sing, then, and He listens.

Stanza XXXIV — The Realms

56Nights, seasons, hours, moments — these are the vestments of Time.

57Wind, water, fire — the below, the middle, the above.

58In these He has placed the earth as a home for us.

59Upon it He has placed creatures of many kinds and many colors.

60Their names are known only to Him.

61Judged shall each one be, according to his deeds.

62The just is welcomed; the false is turned away.

The Concluding Slok

63Air is the guru, water the father, and earth the mother of all.

64Day and night are the two nurses,

65in whose lap all the world plays.

66Good deeds and bad deeds — the record of them is read before Dharam-raj, the Judge.

67Each according to his own deeds shall be near or far.

68Those who have meditated on the Name, and their labor been fully accepted —

69Nanak: their faces shine in the True Court,

70and how many are saved along with them!

notes

Japji Sahib is the morning prayer that opens the Guru Granth Sahib, the sacred scripture of Sikhism. It was composed by Guru Nanak (1469–1539), the founder of the Sikh faith, and consists of the Mool Mantar (the "Root Statement" of Sikh belief) followed by 38 pauris (stanzas) and a concluding slok. Guru Nanak's central teaching, articulated with utmost economy in the Mool Mantar and elaborated through the Japji, is the reality of one God (Ek Onkar), timeless and unincarnate, knowable to human beings through the grace of the Guru. His faith emerged in a religious landscape sharply divided between Hindu and Muslim orthodoxies, and his response — reflected throughout the Japji — was neither syncretism nor rejection but a call to the direct experience of the divine underneath all creedal forms. The Japji is recited daily by observant Sikhs at dawn (Amrit Vela — the hours before sunrise). It provides a compact but comprehensive summary of Sikh cosmology, ethics, and spiritual practice: the primacy of hukam (divine will), the doctrine of karma, the necessity of hearing (suniai) and believing (mannai) the Name, the futility of ritualism without inward transformation, and the ultimate reality of the True One (Sat Nam). The Guru Granth Sahib itself (compiled in 1604 by the fifth Guru, Arjan, and finalised in 1708 by the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, who declared it the eternal Guru) contains the compositions not only of the Sikh Gurus but also of Hindu bhakti saints (Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas) and Muslim Sufis (Sheikh Farid) — a striking testament to Sikhism's inclusive vision. Translation: composed from Ernest Trumpp, "The Adi Granth, or The Holy Scriptures of the Sikhs," London: Wm. H. Allen, 1877; and Max Arthur Macauliffe, "The Sikh Religion: Its Gurus, Sacred Writings, and Authors," Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1909. Both public domain.

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