Here is an admirable attempt to give an integrated interpretation of the Japji in terms of three concepts: Devotion, Dedication and Deliverance. Whatever its merits, the interpretation provides interesting reading. The readers would be interested to have the author's exposition of Guru Nanak's conception of deliverance. There are hints interspersed all through this appraisal of the Japji but unfortunately these are not put together into a clear focus to yield a well-defined picture.
To those who have made a study of Guru Nanak, the man and the Prophet, this appreciation will be the reminder of two very interesting traits in his character;
The deliverance, or the spiritual goal, according to Guru Nanak, is a state of unalloyed but emotionless joy, full knowledge born of intuition and competence to live fully and benevolently.
This commentator has raised an important theological issue: How could Guru Nanak proclaim in one breath that there is only one God Who alone is true, and talk of Indra, Krishna, Brahma.....etc. in the next? Is it that the Japji is the work of two authors?
The commentator has given his own explanation. We may add that Guru Nanak's reference to Indra, Brahma, etc. did not amount to his vouching their being, or having been realities. Guru Nanak drew heavily on current religious idiom of his times - of which Brahmna, Indra, etc. were a part - to lend greater emphasis to his ideas. Whereas popular belief claimed that Brahma alone created all things that there were, Guru Nanak proclaimed that there were innumerable Brahmas fashioning things. On attaining the Realm of gian, (knowledge) Guru Nanak said, one became aware of the existence of innumerable Krishnas and Shivas. The contents, without a doubt, indicate that Krishna, Shiva, Brahma, etc. spoken of here cannot be taken as specific historical or mythological figures, they are representative of certain rare attributes. So great is Guru Nanak's God that He can create any number of them. Guru Nanak has obviously brought them in focus to emphasize God's greatness and limitless power.
--Editor, The Sikh Review
Perhaps it can be said that there are three crucial ingredients to any religion: Devotion, Dedication and Deliverance. Devotion is central, for it implies acknowledgement of some higher reality, and lays the foundation for the other two aspects. Dedication involves the commitment to a certain way of life as a result of the devotion to a particular higher reality. Deliverance proceeds from one of the first two facets of creed or from a combination of the two; it can mean many things, from nirvana to the solution of the enigma of human life and its meaning.
The Japji represents an incorporation of all these elements into a simple morning prayer. By itself it could serve very well as a foundation of a faith.
It begins with a credo, which, because it is a credo, also serves as a devotional.
"There is One God. He is the Supreme Truth."
The first sections state God's majesty and the awful inability of man to proclaim, much less, explain or approach His grandeur. He is Omnipresent, Omniscient, Omnipotent: He is Truth, Bounty, Love. Uncreated, he creates and destroys and recreates. His Will encompasses all and before Him all are as nothing. What hope has man of knowing Him? He is never to be set upon paper or spoken upon. One who knows of Him is egoless and without pride. What is man? What is man's approach?
In the ambrosial hours of fragrant dawn,
Bring merit, be it as little as the mustard seed;
But he who hears, believes and cherishes the Word
An inner pilgrimage and cleansing is his meed.
All virtue is God's, and all knowledge. Neither Muslim nor Hindu nor anyone can know more than God is great, all-powerful and unknowable. None who worship God can know Him, but even a little ant that has His name in the heart is more, than the great king who does not!
Devotion, again, comes to the fore as God is forever praised as One Whose laudable characteristics have no end. Even Indra, Brahma, Krishna and Shiva with their worshippers, give Him praise. Of such a God it is impossible to ask for complete knowledge:
He who claims to know blasphemeth
And is worst the stupidest.
Again, in the Sodar, the magnificence of the one true God is exalted and the list of those that exhalt His Name is without measure. Nor is dedication forgotten: as a beggar one should go forth with apparel of contentment, modesty, meditation, knowledge of death, a chaste and pure mind and above all faith. Knowledge is one's food and in one's heart an eternal cry of gratitude to God. For, God's greatness is beyond all telling, and without Him man has no power and before God "there is no low or high degree."
Through God should one seek the law, knowledge, beauty, action and truth, for in Him are all these born and without Him none is attainable. To attain the right way one must mould one's life as a gold coin is made:
In a forge of continence with patience and tools of knowledge; on the anvil of reason, with fear of God as bellows and prayer and austerity to make the fire hot; finally pouring the liquid in the mould of love, and then engraving - 'the Name of the Lord thereon'.
Finally, comes the sloka which culminates and, in a way, summarizes the whole prayer. It speaks of the natural world in which we live and the elements of which we are made. Let the words of the Guru be as the air we breathe and let us act knowing that God will judge our actions. Some will be saved and sit near His Seat, others must stay too far away. But, those who have woshipped God know happiness, truth, and bliss, and not for themselves alone, for they have set many others free.
It is hard to say whether this was written by one hand. I think it quite possible that it was: such references as there being but one God, followed by those to Indra, Brahma, Siva and Krishna, and Isvara may be different ways one man has of saying the same thing.
The purpose of the prayer is easier to see for it encapsulates a living faith as much as it can be done. It strives to convince by restating and in so doing serves to reassure those convinced. It's arguments are concise and keen, but much more important, its praise and love of a loving and majestic God is sincere and moving. Dedication to a good life, faith and love of God and His goodness are urged. Through grace those who seek salvation find their answer.
In short, the Japji serves as contrite prayer, concrete code, and a hymn of adoration. It leaves nothing desired undone in fulfilling its many roles.
