Guru Nanak’s Ten Sacred Words of Faith

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The Infinite Wisdom (Vaheguru) is said to reveal the Sacred Words of Sikh Faith to Guru Nanak that he pronounced on the Day of Full Moon in September-October 1499.

At that time, the local natives employed Vedic vocabulary to practice the Sacred Words as the Mool Mantr meaning a basic formula to meditate upon. Guru Nanak made use of this set of sacred words for recitation and contemplation in order to inculcate worship of the divine attributes within human spirit.

In the Sikh belief system, the human soul is nothing but God's manifestation in a perceivable form. We can behold and experience this form through our inner faculty of Surt (extra sensory consciousness as developed through practices of gurmat; see 'Surat: Higher Consciousness Of Divine Engagement', Understanding Sikhism: the Research Journal, 5 (1): 29-35, 2003).

The Sacred Words of Sikh Faith articulates this doctrine. They identify those divine attributes which Guru Nanak felt were necessary as the seeds to create a perfect human being; the human being which qualifies to be a divine image. Indeed by meditating on our divine traits through the Sacred Words we are worshipping the divine itself.

Contemplation on the Sacred Words takes our mind from worshiping the Indivisible Virtual Reality (Ek, 1) to a visualization of its manifested form (Onkar).

For realizing one's real personality, the manifested form consists of the soul to posses attributes such as Sat Naam (truth being its identity), Karta Purakh (infinite creativity), Nirbhau (total fearlessness), Nirvair (absence of animosity), Akaal Moorat (timeless and ageless entity), Ajooni (which does not suffer the cycles of birth and death), Saibhang (self evolving), and Gur Prasaad (which is ever in gratitude of Infinite Wisdom).

Just as biological processes create favorable circumstances for a seed first to become a tree and then to transform itself into a fruit, meditation on the Sacred Words creates the necessary energy through which an individual human may reach the heights of supreme attributes and merge in eternal union with the Infinite Wisdom.

Once found, the faithful must continually nourish this consciousness to guard against its weakening or it atrophies like an unused nerve or muscle. The meditation and worship of the Sacred Words like a mantra provides this continuous nourishment.

(These above was presented at the Second Seminar on Guru Granth, Richmond, May 31, 2003)