by Carol Marshall
Princeton University

Editor, SikhSpectrum.com -- A few students from Princeton wrote their impressions of Japji, the Sikh morning prayer. These were later published in The Sikh Review, July 1966. In the editorial The Sikh Review editor wrote:

"How will a group of university students, in far off country like the United States of America, who have grown up in a different cultural environment, receive and react to the Sikh morning prayer, the Japji?

"Khushwant Singh’s aim in collecting these essays and getting them published is to stimulate the Sikh youth’s interest in the poem. He rightly states that our Sikh boys and girls either do not recite the prayer or, if they do, they do not care to know what its sum and substance is.

"What exactly should we expect in these essays? Basically, these are personal appraisals of the substance of the Japji. The majority of the essays are – and occasionally admittedly – attempts to view the contents of Japji from personal angles of vision. The translation of any philosophic or religious work, however competent the translator, tends to be a partial representation of its contents. A language comprehends and is delimited by the concepts, which form the substance of the cultural consciousness of the people who speak it. In such a case it is very difficult to convey the full import of such concepts through translations.

"In interpreting a particular work of a certain author, a study of his other works and knowledge of what he said or did in different situations may be of great help and sometimes indispensable. The appraisals of the Japji by these Princeton students would have been more enlightened if their study of the Japji was supplemented by a detailed study of the life of Guru Nanak and some of his other works.

"That these studies of the Japji are what they are should provoke no regrets. What is intended to be gathered from them is the knowledge of how the Japji has impressed the atom era youth of one of the most advanced countries of the world. That most of them have been so deeply impressed by the poem emphasizes the need for making available to them material on the Sikh religion and its founders."

Editor, The Sikh Review -- Ms. Carol Marshall’s appraisal of the Japji indicates that she has delved deep into the poem. Her description of the poem as a ‘reminder’ and an ‘inspirer’ is extremely telling.

No less telling is her summing up of the substance of the poem: the poem tries to understand God and man’s relationship to Him. Add to this, her observations that God is Truth and only His grace, which is won through active efforts, helps us understand the truth; and you have come very close to the apprehensions of the Japji’s basic tenets.

                                       In the ambrosial hours of fragrant dawn,
                                       On Truth and greatness ponder in meditation. -- Guru Nanak

The Sikh Japji or Morning Prayer quite easily could contain at most all the essential points of the Sikh religion. Since, according to the prayer, prayer alone makes the soul whole, there is little wonder why each morning is started by prayer, and especially this one. The Japji seems to be a reminder and inspirer for each believer to not only review his faith as he says prayer; but by meeting each tenet again, he is filled with the emotion, the idea, and the spirit of faith. It charges the day to come with meaning, purpose and incentive for further understanding of the faith.

Most important for life is the knowledge of relationship with God, that He exists; hence the prayer begins:

"There is One God"

After this statement, the prayer continues to try to understand, explain God and man's relationship to Him. God is Truth, and it is the aim of life to understand this Truth; only by God's grace can this be done. And yet,

"The mind.....shall be opened if thou but try and hearken to the Guru's Word."

The prayer goes on to explain what happens. "By hearing the Word....", and how one lives as a believer. But most important is the word "try".

Now, the prayer mentions that action alone is in the book of Fate predestined, so concern with action should be little. But "In the Realm of Action, 'effort' is supreme, nothing else prevails," and perhaps the best manifestation of this are those who have the "fashioned consciousness, understanding, mind, and reason" of "the genius of the sage and seer, the power of men superhuman," those who try to understand God. For it is only trying and by effort that man realizes what his position in life, and in this man-God relationship, is. Only he who has tried can say:

"What might have I to praise Thy might? I have not power to give it praise."

Or,

"How shall I know Thee, how describe, praise and name?"

And then the answer:

"He who knows, hath no ego and no pride."

And yet it is on a note of reality and finality that the prayer ends.

Man is in the lap of time and the world is our playground, here one makes the decision to play, or toy with life, or to make it meaningful by pursuing Nanak's path. Truth, God is eternal; the question is how will man respond. Will he try?

The prayer instills a desire to do so, to praise God, and tells of the rewards and joys of such a response. Certainly, the Morning Prayer is important both theologically as well as for the spiritual stability of a believer. The Japji orients one's mind towards a religions life, as each day begins.