The Region of Grace
BHAI SAHIB SIRDAR KAPUR SINGH (ex. M.P)
IT is proposed here to make a few 0 bscrva-
tions on and suggest some cities for a
truer understanding of the 37th stanza (karam-
klzan(l) of the Japu of Guru Nanak.
It is not disputed that the Japu is one of the
latest revelations or compositions of Guru
Nanak and it is estimated as enshrining mature
theosophy of the Sikh religion. The Hindi
Poet Laureate, Ma1uikavi Bhai Santokh Singh
(1785-1843 A.D.) in his, Garbgalljini tikti, an
exegesis of the Japu, has summed up the
consensus oJ generations of Sikh opinion on
the status of this text in Sikhism by saying
that, "Ite who calls himself a Sikh and yet has
not committed the text of the Japu to memory
(for daily re·;itation), is like the husk contain-
ing no grain of rice, worthless and of no value.'"
The Japu is pithY, slltra form of Samskrit
literary tradition that requil es an expression
comprised of all essentials of a thesis in the
fewest possible words without sacrificing clarity.
The Japu is also of the genere of the Poeticus,
which, however, alien it may appear to religious
preoccupations undoubtedly draws inspiration
f;om the meanings applicable to the context of
mantra or acoustic potency of the spoken
words, such as upa/llti, sleslw and dh valli,
suggestive comparison and equivalence, implied
peripheral meanings and penumbral undertone
aesthetic significance evoked by it. In the
1. (';T)j llolf1?~ fWd ilfu' il~"l
&0 (';1 0110 I
fil~ ~an; f~o ~ ~u 3lJ f15u':<1 ~?i II
(National Professor of Sikhism)
Ktil'yamimdmsti one senses the desire to
immitate vedic imagery, where om; finds the
verse of the Rigl'eda on the Two Birds/ the
symbol of the "double meaning", the double
entena~'e, or I'akrokti, about which latter the
Upanisads tell us, that it is the only language
acceptable to the gods: vakrokti ktimtifli del'af!,
serving here to illustrate the thesis that it is
Poeticlls which enables one to understand the
transcendental truths and profundities of reli-
giolls realisation.
As for the satra , it means, a clue intended
as memory-aid to long discussions on a topk,
between the teacher and his stlldents, wherein
much thought is compressed into tIlt< fewest
possible words. M tidhavtictirya quotes .from
Padampuriina, a definition of "Iitra in his
Bra!llllaszitrablztisya;
"People learned in slill a-literature say that
a SIUla shodld be concise anti unambiguous,
give the essence of the arguments on a topic,
with all aspects of the question, free from
repetition and otherwise faJltless."3
In addifion to being of (I) Poet icus category
and (2) SIUra genere, the Japll IS also (3) ,evela-
'dl·ipaksi
3. 3f<'I'fr~IfafGf~:i ~r<:fmaT lJ;l1Ili I
3maTif<rq~ 'if ~'l'fqGT fq~: "
 THE SlIm REVIEW
tion in contrast to argument, exegesIs and
contemplative insight. 4
Even where its content and expression
reflects or resembles ideas and expressions
pre-existing, it is not to be deemed. as a borrow-
ing as it has a wholly different and original
matrix and even when it is manifestly traceable
to earlier known ideas maDlpulated, moulded
and re-expressed It is not to be regarded or
styled as syncretism, fOl: here similalit}' to Jr
identity WIth the earher integrd component
Ideas IS accidental and not causal or where
it simply or direrel), reechoes an existing idea
or thesis, it is more truly a chance paralIelism
and similarity and not a deliberately supportive
argument, or mere assent.
Mirza Asadullah Khan, Ghalib (1796-1869
A.D.) has truly ·grasped the point, expressed
somewhat impishly in his Persian couplet,
saying:
"Suspect me not of plagiarism and believe
it that a bold thief, from out of the Eternal
'Store of ideas, has stolen that to which I
had a clear right of property."5
Terence (195~159 B.C.), a Roman play-
wright, when accused of plagiarising the
Greek dramatist, Menander, wrote:
4. 3T -H Olfu"l)/T Olu~ Of ~ ~ Olu Tf"8"1)/T I
(~-5H, ll. '1.
tlT~u <11 ofRtlu
- 0l1l31it llf3 llf3 Era
'Rf3<11o
uolOlo3T "l)/lf" !:!u~ Ol"iil~ I
(~Hol ,,1 ~o, ll: 9 l./:
u@ "l)/11./<l ii"l'l ('; tl~t!T -H Off(J"r)/T lls (JOllll~ tft~ I
- - (~u1 ll: ~ ~~-61: 1./. !lE:I)
5.
5
23
"Nothing is ever said which has not been
said before."
It is ' necessary to bear in mind these three
basic characteristics, mul-lakshnain of the
Japu to appreciate the reflections on its 37th
stanza which is the subject-matter of the
present monograph.
Besides, ideas about and insights into
reality, no matter what their origin, cogitation,
intuition, inspiration, theomancy, theopneusty
on direct revelation, srutf, illzlim, are always
bound by and are within the context of con-
temporary spirtiual mili'eu and cultural 'topo~
graphy and environment and can be properly
understood only when seen thus, though this
tinge and colouration of particularity and
contingency does neither devalue the universal
import of a revelation nor detract from its
pristine status.
One who looks for an idea wholly novel and
utterly new, unrooted in the cultural context
of its manifestation and unrelated to aU that
has gone before and thus, by implication, lying
beyond verbal frontiers, is verily looking for
sheer gibberish, to avoid which predicament
Yajnavalkya, in his discourses with King Janak
in. Brihadarnyakopanisad has developed the
'doctrine of negative asservation, neti, not-
i3 1./. I.lEI.l) this, not-this, to refer to the ineffable, indes-
cribable experience of the Absolute:
- - -
"Neither gross nor minute, neither
:lot:) short nor long, neither redness
nor mo:sture, ne:ther air nor
ether-lZeti, neli."
To say but not to say that ever said before,
is to speak non-sense and when called u p'on
to say tha! which cannot be said, that which
is unsayable, the right answer is silence. In an
24 May 1974

upa/lisad, no longer extant 6 a student puts The words of the text, karam-kha/ld, jom
repeated questions to his teacher to expound . and sitosita remain in their original Panjabi
the nature of Brahman but the teacher remains form, having been deliberately left untranslated .
silent. When the student persists the teacher
observes: . The Japll, as was to ,be expecled, has been
commented upon and exegetised ever since
bnlmaha k/za/ll tvam til na the epiphany of Sikhism and over one hundred
vijnanasi upasantoyam titmti commentaries on it are now available in
(I am teaching YOll all the time, but you do not printed form , In recent times, any Sikh of
understand it. This atma is silence). some social status, after retirement from his
profession or Government service considers
The Japu as a scriptural text, a revelation em- it a 'must' to write or have . it ghosted lor
bodied in verbal theses has to be approached hiniselt, a commentary on the Japu to ensure
and understood in this background if it is to his recognition as a Sikh intellectual. In all
be truly understood. these commentaries, without an exception,
The 37th. Stanza (karam-khand) of the no attempt is made to find out the locus
Japu is as follows: ' classicus 01 the five klwf/das or 'regions' of
Reality which are expounded in the JaplI and
karam klzant! ki bani jorll, of which 'regions' of Reality, the karam-
tit/wi horu n koi horu, ' kha/lt! is described as the highest but one,
(ithaijodh mahabtil SIll', the highest being the sac klza/lt!, the 'region'
tin malzi rtimli rahiti Marpar, of Truth. In earlier commentaries when
titltai sitositti ma/Jimti mtihi., theological interpretation of Sikhism was the
td ke nip /l kat/me jaM,
exclusive domain of udasis, the ascetic Sikh
/ld ohi marhi II tlztige jtihi, yogi preachers and nirma/as, the scholastic
jill ke rtimti vasahi mall mahi, non-house-holder class ,amongst the regular
fitlwi b/lCigat vasahi ke loa, baptised Khalsa, karam-khand was almost
karhi anandu saea mani sol. invariably translated as 'the stage (in spirihlal
It may be simply translated as follows: development) where the actioll (Samskrit,
The speech of karam-khan(l 'is joru. karma) is of foremost importance.' The word
There neither the other nor aught else. jam occuring in the first hemistich of this
There the valiant, the mighty, the brave ones. stanza lent this interpretation plausibility for
In themselves they are God-filled. two reasons, first, the word, joru is employed
The sitosita in glory and praise. in the meanings of 'strength', 'power', in the
Their beauty of form indescribable. earlier, 33rd ' stanza of the Japu and second,
They die not and are not victims of nescience these classes of commentators were educated
and deception, exclusively in Samskrit, and they naturally
Those whose minds are occupied by God. accepted the word karam as meaning the same
There bhalctas or devotees of many worlds as it does in classical works Oll Yoga where
reside, karma-yoga is one technique for the practice of
And they are in the state of bliss having yoga.
, the true One enshrined in their hearts.
Although in the last and 38th stanza of the
'Samkara's Wod,s, Memorial Edition, Vol. Ill. P. 587. Japu, the word, karam -is unmistakably used
 THE SIKH REVIEW
as the Arabic word kl'm ( (:/) which, means,
'compassionate mercy', 'grace' and although
in the voluminous Sufi Islamic literature, the
term is frequently employed in precisely this
sense, it did not occur to these earlier com-
mentatorS that her'e the term, karam-khand
is a new philosophical concept coined by Guru
Nanak through lingual symboisis of Arabic
and Samskrit, both mature, classical languages
of re/.igion and theology, current amongst
and familiar to Guru Nanak's contemporaries,
in order to express a system of cosmology
different from those already known to aryan
and semit ic thought.
The present day commentators, however,
concede tpat in the term, karam-khand in the
37th stanza of the JaplI, the expression 'karam
is a word of Arabic origin, b"lt these com-
mentors, all of them, lllvariably ignore the
fundamental rule of interpretation requiring
that, in a text, the meaning of a part have to
be reconciled with the meaning of the whole.
They translate the word, joru, in the first line
of this stanza, to mean, "power' , 'strength',
taking it to be the Persian word, zor, ( J);)
for which the Samskrit equiv.alent is bala.
They fail to notice that if joru here is the same
as, bala, then the first line of the stanza remains
at loggerh,~ads with the second line: lit/wi
floru n koi ho/u: 'in that (region) there is no
other and naught else'. Surely where 'power',
'strength' is the master-element through which
the karam-khand manifests itself, communi-
cates itself; employingjoru, as its biini, 'speech',
there ex-hypothesis, as well as by implication
have to be the 'other', something 'else', in
order the manifestation to occur and in order
the communication to take place . It is obvious
that here Guru Nanak is indicating a mode of
knowing that is referred to as adl'and, 'unitive
experience' in the Bluigvadgila and other "ij1:lEE ~ qTa ~Tf~l)Jt ~111T<!:' I'la £T~1 "§~1 ~ I"
25
ancient Samskrit texts. Such an 'experience"
or spiritual state is wholly devoid of su bject-
object tension, such as is iroplicit in the word,
joru, if it is to be understood as th e Persian
word, in the meaning of the Samskrit, balet.
The bani, 'the mode of communication'
of the karam-khand, therefore, cannot be
joru, in the me,a ning of 'power', 'strength';
the word, joru must stimd for something that
means, 'unison', elimination of the subject-
object tension, advanda, 'without the other',
tit/wi Izo(u n kof horu and the Punjabi word
'joif' ending in a hard 't' ( :I ) readily
suggests itself. The word, jOtu, here is the
Punjabi word joif ( -;:;3) which 'prec'isely
means, 'united together' 'unison' . Guru Nanak
has replaced the hard 'r' of the Punjabi word
with the soft, 'J', to meet the prosodial re-
quirements of rhyme, a well recognis~d
technic of (poetic-license.'
The first line of the 37th stanza of the Japu,
therefore, should be rightly translated as:
'The speech of the region of grace is unison.'
The commentators, old and new both, do
not seem to think that the word, klzallif, here
poses any problem requiring understanding
and explanation. They either retain the word
as it is in their commentaries, presuming that
its meanings are simple and self evident', or
they quite arbitrarily, mix it up and' equate
it with its denotation ignoring its connotation
altogether,· thus mistaking the 'class' for the
'characteristics' .
Now, let us take the word, klzand, which
one of our commentators presumes as 'sinlple
'Pandit Narayan Singh Gyani, Sri Jap"ji Stik, Amritsar
(1955), .P.75.
"<loll -.fa £T,H ~1 'l3 T<!:1 -;:;0 £1~1-Q. ~1 ~ I"
'Sodhi Teja Singh, Katiliisiigar, Anuitsar (1958), P. 280.
26 May, 1974

and the other as meaning kand, and then quite (7) Satya or brahmaloka, Brahma's abode
wronglr taking kand to mean a 'class'. translation to which precludes re.,birth. Other
Hindu cosmographies mention fourteen takas,
Any lexicon of Samskrit will tell us that seven above and seven below our earth.
klzalUj means, 'part', 'fragment', 'a piece',
'portion'. When applied to geography it means, This cosmography was one of the things
'i1 continent'. In precisely this last geographical that aroused t'he scorn of Lord Maca;lay,
sense the word has b!en employed by Guru who for this among other reasons, dismissed
Arjun, in the Sukhmani (3.2.)9 It, therefore, Hindu claims to 'Scientific competence in the
cannot legitimately be interpretted to mean field of geography, quite forgetting that
either a stage in individual's spiritual evolution Brahrnagupta, as far back as' 3rd century,
or ascent or a class or category of individuals B.C. was aware that the earth was spherical
reached that stage. and had compiled faidy accurate longitudes of
Cosmology is the study of Universe as a important places in India, and blissfuHy igno-.
whole, which includes both cosmogony, the . rant of the fact that although the lakas of
theory of the origin of the Universe, and Hindu cosmography were material in nature
cosmography, a description of the Universe. but were not to be deemed as of gross matter
It is obvious that the description of the five of the gravitational property of the earth and
klzam;las in the Japu, of which the karam·khan¢ observable by physical human eye aided or
is one, is Sikh cosmography and not Sikh unaided. These [akas , though spatial, are
cosmogony, which exists elsewhere in the conceived of as made up of subtler and subtler
Guru Granth. forms of matter observable through extra-
physical 'eyes' of various grades, caksu inherited
The Hindu cosmography is various and by exceptional indi viduals or developed through
complicated and is not unoften influenced by yogic discipline.
sectarian tendencies, but aU such theories
belong to two categories, those that conceive Like the Hindus, the Sufi·Islam also pro-
of the universe as spatial and those that pounds a cosmography, partly based on clues
interpret it as essentially Psychological. In from the Karan and mostly based on the extra
both- cases the universe is descri bed or con·
ceived as consisting of tokas, from the Samskrit, perceptual, direct knowledge, Kashaj (.:.J;f )
[ok, 'to see;, 'to behold' or 'perceive' The
most commonly accepted cosmography which jlained 'by spiritually developed sufis and
concei ves of the Universe as spatial propounds muslim saints: They speak of ' Seven Worlds'.
seven worlds or [okas,' (1) Bhur·loka, the earth, (I) Evidentia,\ world, iiTam-aT-slwhadat (2)
(2) Bhuvar, sp~ce between earth and the sun Purgatorial world, aTam·al·barzakh (3) World
(3) S war, Indra's heaven, between the sun of spirits, alam·al"orl1'alz, (4) World of reality,
and the polar star, (4) Mahar, above the polar iilam·al·!Zaqiq (5) World of principles, aTam-al-
star inhabited by ihe rshis who survive the arkan, (6) World of .the unseen, alam·al·
destructionof tlie three lower worlds, (5) Janar, ghaib, (7) World of plurality and oneness,
the abode of Brahma's son, Sunatkumar, alam·al-kathrat·va·l'iilzadatahu.
(6) Tapar, inhabited by deified vairagins,
Apparently, these worlds of Islamic cosmo·
9. 7i~ 1:/8 f'J ~1 fo:-a ftrg tfl~ 1 graphy are spiritual and/or logical and con·
THE SIlCH REVIEW
ceptual in nature; they are not material or
spatia\.
The psychological Hindu cosmography of
traiyalaka, is rooted in depth-psychology, what
the post-Freudian generations of the western
intellectuals are familiar with as, conscious,
sub-conscious and unconscious. The conscious
is deemed of the lowest quality of awareness
of reality where the soul is caught in the ~aze
to the constitution of senses which are in-
capable of giving a true account of the objecis
setting them into activity. It is a world of
artificial and d~cepti ve images that a prisoner
of waking-consciousness is subjected to .
"The break in the normal and natural order
of things in human life is directly traceable
to man's mentation, the way in which he
knows himself and distinguishes himself
from others,"'o
The dream-consciousness is interm e di ~.ry
between - the limitations of our waking
consciousness and higher contemplRtion. Al-
though the materials of o.Jr dream-conscious-
ness come from the outii,jde illusory world,
yet their organisation and sequence is not
imposed from outside and is essentially the
result of our own creative act ivity. Thus,
dream-consciousness is freer and - is in touch
with a higher layer of reality.
Deep sleep is the highest form of our indi-
vidual consciousness, when no dreams inter-
fere or intervene. It -is free both from con-
straining outer i'nfluences and from the selec-
tive arbitrary restrictions of mental activity.
Here the individual consciousness is liberated
from the desecrating and misconstruing im-
positions of the two localising elements, the
self-centrendness, the subJective opposition to
the objective universe and the sentiment of
our objectivated p ersonal being of our mani-
"Dr. S. Radhkrisbnan, Eastern Religioll and Westel'll
thought, Oxford, P. 43.
27
fold organised person located between this
self-conscious centre and the surface of its
contact with and its resistance to the outer
world.
These are the three psychological worlds of
which the Hindu psychological cosmography
speaks of as ' traiyalaka, the Three Worlds.
There is the fourth world beyond the indi-
vidual unconscious, whi ch is nameless and is,
therefore, simply called caturya, the Fourth
World. This is identical with th e All-Ground
of the Absolute Reality the characteristics
whereof are unsayable and to which the neti-
doctrine of the upanisads refers. It is to these
psychological worlds that a reference exists
in the apocryphal Sikh sacred writing Pran-
SGllgali,l1 to fetch a manu script of which Guru
Arjun, theFifthNanak, sent a special meSsenger
to Ceylon in 1600 A.D. and after examining
it rejected it as apocryphal and not in accor-
dance with the true Sikh cosmography, which
is contained in the Japu ,
These three psychological worlds are not
spatia~or encased in the time-space continuum -
and they are clearly di stinguishable from the
seven lakas of Hindu cosmographv as well as
the seven worlds of the Muslim cosmography.
From all these cosmographies are to be
distinguished the Buddhist visionary worlds,
such as Sukhavafi mentioned in the Buddhist
text, A1l1ithahyanasl1tra the personal paradise
of the individual contemplative mind . These
worlds are wholly subjective and are distin-
guishable (rom the other categories of the
Hindu and Muslim ,cosmographies which are
tran s-su bjective, being objects common to all
11. t1l013
. ... 1'11.(0
~ -
'RE1.lf3 3C11)l{T I
'l)IT3H 91.13 &1 fl?fu UCl11')1T II
'" -
 28 May, 1974

normal experience under certain appropriate layeral, then translation of man from one to
conditions. The visionary, the pllrely mental the other is inconceivable.
cosmographic worlds lack spatial relations and
"The teaching of Buddha relates to two
are of utterly transient nature directly appre-
truths, the relative and the condit ional and
hended by one subject only.
the t ran.s cendent."
The Sikh cosmography as explained in the
"But the two truths are not unrelated, for,
Japu is clearly distinguishable from all the
were they so wewould be involved in absolute
other cosmographies in certain respects. First-
scepticism."
ly, the Sikh cosmography is not spatial and
material as the Hindu terrestriallokas, or as "Without resorting to relative truth resorting
the psychologicallraiyaloka. The Sikh cosmo- to absolute Truth ' is unattainable-
logy also is not visio'nary or subjective like I'yal'ahdram anasrilya paramarlho na
the Buddhist sukhava{i parad ises . The Sikh aesyate." 12
cosmography also is not an admixture of The concept of the entire cosmos as made
logical and discursive comprehension, as in up of khanrjas, 'parts', as is described in the
the main, t"he Sufi Muslim cosmography is. Sikh cosmology, opens up a religious vista and
The positive characteristics of the Sikh Co~mo­ furnishes a theological insight that lends it a
graphy are, that it is trans-subjective and pragmatic significance and logical coherence
corresponds to development and growth of missing in the earlier cosmologies.
human personality, till the individual becomes
one with tlle Truth, a denizen of the sacaklrand. The procession of human personality and.
Negati.vely, it is not spatial, material, idealistic perception from one khallt;la of the Sikh
or logic-based. Its most distinctive characteris- cosmography to the other and higher, superior
tic is that it conceives of the 'creation not as an khanrja is through a J igorous and systematic
uncoordinated phenomenon, sarvam, but as intellectual and emotional culture, ethical
an organic whole, visavam. Its outstanding course and. spiritual discipline cons\;mated by
pecu liarity is that its correspondents to lokas, 'grace' as is made clear in the 38th stanza of
aTams and vat is are spoken of as klran(ias, the Japu and the final consumation and summit-
fragments and paits of a whole that never achievement is the gift of God, just as is the
looses its continuity of uniformity from one engagement and occupation of the human
'part' to the other, while the Hindu lokas and individual in the appropriate pursuit of the
Islamic ii/ams are, each one ofthem, an organic summum bonum: jill kau nadal" kalOm till
whole in itself, not integerally related to the kar, Nanak nadr f lIadar /liMT.
other; they are unrela'led ,discrete, self-sufficient What is this 'grace' of God., karam to which
and whole in their own rights. the man solely owes the initiative, sustena:nce,
and achievement regarding the path to and
The category of klra/l(l in the Sikh cosmo-
arrival at the highest apex cf Reality?
graphy has far-reaching and basic conse-
quences qua the religious que5t and gcal of "Defined in psychological terms, grace is
man, which after all is the only true motivation something other than our self-consci.ous
for understanding and compreheriding a theory personal self by which we are helped."13
and schemata of cosmology. If the various
lokas and alams of cosmography are variant, 12Nagarjuna, Prajnapiirmillo, XXIV.
"Aldolls Huxley, Perrenial Philosophy, London (1946),
discrete, organically un related and distinctly P. 191.
 THE Snm REVIEW
"Spiritual grace originates from the divin~
Ground,.
of all being and. it is given . for the
purpose of helpIng man to achieve his final
end which is to return out of time and
self-hood to that Ground."14
The entire textoftheJaplI reqllire~ a thorough
reappraisal and fresh er und.elstanding so as
to make it acquire significance and relevance
for the modern well-informed mind.
Remoins now an analysis of the third word,
silo-sild, that we left lmtranslated above,
besides the words, kararn kha'lq. and jo/'u.
The word silo-sild occurs just once in the
entire voluminous corpus of the Sikh scripture
and it is not found in the contemporaneous
current languages when the Japu was created
in the nort h of India, such as Samskrit , Arabic,
Persian and Braj'bhasha. In no Punjabi writing
prior'to. or since Guru Nanak, this word has
been made use of in any composition of the
Punjabi language and it is, therefore, natural
that it should have mystified and stultified
genuine .and pseudo-commentators of the
Japu .1t is also understandable that this obscure
mystery-word should have attracted fanciful
and naive meanings.
Tn most of the extant commentaries of the
Japu, two different meanings are gl ven to this
word. (I) sito-sitd='well-sewn', 'firmly stit-
oh~ d', from the PUnjabi word sind, to
sew,l5 (2). sito-sitd=Husband of Sita of the
Romayalla and Sita herself. 16
"ibid. P. 193.
"Prof. Kanar Singh, japu-stik, Lahore, P. 93.
"lll~ 'R13T = ~oo 30 3 'RbT ~fu~ I"
16Pandit Narayan Singh Gyani , Sri Japllji Stik. Amritsar
(1 955). ,
"~ii~ ~ (~''Rl\')ft
t!1) ).jfYHT f~tI 'R1§ (1l13T
t!T 1.131) ljl oT);~t!~ ill llI3 'R13 T (.11 91 ~
~-E yo) I"
29
Any person well"acquainted with the syntax
and structure of Punjabi language and aware
of the academic levels and literary style of
Guru Nanak will at once reject these suggested
meanings as crude, n!iive, inappropriate and,
inadmissible. 'sewn ~nto the 'praise', sifosild
mahimd miilzi, is 110 expression or idiom in
Punjabi. To say that Guru Nanak, called Sri
Ram Chandra by the dimunitive and con-
temptuOiJS name, silo, in the meaning of
'the husband of Sita, is to betray gross
ignorance of Punjabi morphology and to
lampoon Guru Nanak who held the hero and
heroine of the R amaydna in the highest respect
and whose knowledge of contemporary theo-
logical thought and religious literature of
Hinduism and Islam is profound and whose li-
terary skill in mani'pulation ofPunjabi language
is superb by all standards.
sito"sitd, therefore, must be properly identi-
fied, through a thorough .search of the Samskrit,
Arabic and Persian classical literatUl'es.
And this search, in the caSe of the writer of
this monograph, has not proved unrewarding.
In a late hymn of the Rgveda it is said that,
"Those who dip at the place where the
white, sit, and black, asit, rivers meet,
sangarn, (Punjabi, joqll), they prosper in
the celes't ial region, and those who end
their lives by drowning themselves here get
a release from the corporeal existence"'7.
The two rivers mentioned here are evidently
to be identified with Ganga and Jamuna, still
known in popular tradition as, sitasita, 'white
and black', and this is the earliest reference to
17. rtiorfBa tlf~a ~ «flit ~r:r<'lClrB1 f~~~ r
it;{ cr.<i f<"l'!:'ifr.o q'hTto! ;;r.mil 3!lJof<l ~;;r.a It
Rickparishista Rgl'eda X. 75.5
30
the holy sangam, (Punjabi, jo4u) at Paryag,
desecrated and degraded by the Mughal
rulers of India into Allahabad.
silo-sitd in our text is undoubtedly an
apbhramsha form of this Vedic expres~ion,
silo-sila, and the popular name of thi's holy
confluence, siui sila.
Prayag-pra, meritorious, excellent, yag,
;acrificial place, where a dip at the confluence
of Ganga and Jamuna translates man into
the region of the 'shining ones', divamutpatanti,
and where self-immolation leads to 'condilion
beyond death', amrattvam.
Ac~ording to the schemata and postulations
of Sikh cosmology the status of shining gods
and 'existence beyond death' is obtainable
only through the grace of God and not through
rituals ·and suicide at a pa11icular holy place.
Mahiibhamt (Vanp arva, 85.19) tells us that
in the days of pre-History, 'the soul of beings',
pitamaiza, himself had performed ritual sacri-
fices here at Prayag, and that is why it is
called, prayag:
yatra yajat blulIlitmd pti1'l'ame va pitlimaha,
pryagmiti vir/lyantam tasmad bharalasalam.
Further on it is said here t hat this sacrificial
's pot is worshipped by the gods themselves, as
even a little given here in alms increases a
thousand fold. By a dip' in the confluence
man not only obtains merits of ten thousand
horse-sacrifices but benefits his ancestors' also:
lalaha plli/yalmam nam {ris/Ill lokesti bharala,
b/II'irata, prydgam sarvatiratlzablzyo prava-
dantyadhikam vibho, esha yajCillbhl1mirahi dCl'a-
nambhi samskrta, lalra clattam sva/pamapi
mahad bhavali bharata.
May, 1974
Again, Ma/lIiblrarat asserts further on that,
'by going to this holy place, by singing its
praises, or by taking a little earth from it, one
is cleansed. from every sin. One who bathes in
that confluence, celebrated over the three
worlds, acquires all the merits of the rajsaya
and asa\'QIIJedha sacrifices'.]S
Self-immolation by burning' one's self, or
by jumping down the top of a banyan tree-
ro oted out by Emperor Akbar, but replaced
by a new tree, Sll bsequently- caUed., akslzayava!
'the indestructible banyan tree' or by drowning
in the riverain confluence, sangam, has been
an ancient practice at Prayag. The sacred text
Karampurai'ia (XXXVI) tells us that,
"By d.rown ing oneself at the confluence of the
two rivers, a ma,n is freed from sin, as the '
moon is rescued from the grasp of the
shadowy planet, Ralza, (after moon-
eclipse), ]9
Such is 'malzima, the 'greatness and glory'
ascribed to ritual bath or sacrificial ceremonies
or self-immolation at the confluence, sangam
of the rivers Ganga and Jamuna at Paryag,
and our text in the Japu says that the 'great
glory ascribed to certain acts performed at
Prayag, is, ill fact, to be had by man only by
entry into the reg ion of grace, where the true
sangam, jot;iu, is located, and that this true
confluence of sfla sita is also there and there
alone: karam-klzand k j brini joru, lic/wi sitositd
maflima malzi.
18. »r<n1lfN~ aT,q~ ;;T~'liT~fq- 1
'];fifff'lirof 'l1;;T[lfq- wiq-pt: 5[~-olfa) 11
a~Tf'l1q"" ~: ~Tfa Writ Ofl'lif'f»rff 1
~1lli <T q;or'l'Rlfu ~T;;r~~ittttrl: 11
19. ;;rorsf<t~ ~: ;J~T~titfit orl'lif<l»rff 1
~Tg rnrl ~~T <TIlT) ~: <T<fCfT'l*: II
THB SIKlH RBVlBW
Our text says that 'the form and beauty of
those arr i ved in the region of grace is indes-
criblable' . This statement clearly arises out of
the onometopoesis of the 'preceding line, con-
taining the expression, sitositd. Sita., the heroin
of the Rallldyana, the paragon of womanly
virtues, was also the Helen of Hind.u woman-
hood. An ancient Samskrit quotable quote
ascribes the entire traged.y and tribulations of
Sita to her matchless beauty of form and.
psyche: ali Ylipeiia vyayi sita sarl'atra varojyet,
'Sita su ffered because she was excess ively
beautiful and, therefore, excess in everything
is undesirable'. As Valmiki Ramayana tells us,
while imprisoned in the forest.lgrove, ashoka-
vatikd, in order to stiffen her courage Sita '
recollects what the learned in the lore of
anga l'idya, 'the science of essences of bodily
forms', had told her. auear laks/wiiilioye putriif
al'idhtiveti, she .'would be blessed with sons
and would not be wid.owed', keslzall slikshlJlah
nita",' my hair are of d.ark blue colour, glossy
and smooth', vriteea aromasc jal1gize, "my
hairs on two eye brows ".0 not meet', sankhe
netre kare pade gil/Mali' aurae mae ite, 'corners
of my eyes, hands, feet, calf muscles and thighs
are strong and fleshy', a/luvrat Ilaklzail
snigadlzaha samasea angulayo maiza, 'my finger s
are round and the nails shine with a red hue',
sta/leea vil'ale pine mama imuva mu1zana eueuke,
'my breasts and nipples are fleshy crushing
each other', a characteristic of padmani, the
highest species of woman.
It is in this literary background of our
classical literature that the expression in our
text, take nip /I kallme jaili is to be und.erstood
and appreciated.
31
Likewise the following line of the text,
n6 olzi marhi n Ifzage jcihi should be understood
and appreciated, for Sita did become a victim
of deception and Rama, as Uttarramcarita
of Bhavabhuti tells us; ended his sojourn on
earth by plu nging into the waters of Saryu
river that flows by the town of Ayodhya.
Our text says that those who are God-filled
as deniz~ns of the 'region of grace' jill ke
Tamil vasalzi man mahi, they do not fall into
the lap of death, as Rama d.id, nor are they
deceived as Sita was.
The line., tit/wi jod/z malzaba/ slir, till malzi
ram rabid blzarpar as descriptive of the citizens
of the 'region of grace', asserts tha.t mental
processes of unusually high type, the intuitions
.of genius, the outbursts of inspired. poesf,
the emot ional fervour or the ecstasy that carries
the martyr triumphantly through the severest
trials, the enthusiasm that enables the human
organism to c~.rry through 'incredible labour,
the courage ~_nd fortitude that stands up
incredibly and unflinchingly against uncom ~
monly heavy ocl.ds,-all this has as its psycho-
logical ground the God-filled substratum that
lies at the roots of the human psyche, to whi;h
wriLjngs of F. W.H. Myers in particl\lar and
others have given the name of 'subliminal
Self'.20 This 'subliminal Self' is, in fBct, the
grace of God, according to our text.
This concludes our comments and reflections
on the karam-khand portion of the thilty
seventh stanza of the japli.
[Courtesy : ) 0 111'11(1'[ of SiKh Srudies, Guru N~n3k Univesity. Anuilsar.]
"Hlllllall Persollality alld its slIrvil'Gi of Bodily Deatfr.
London (1903). Morton Prince. Dissociatioll of a Per-
sOllality. London (1906). .