Jap is the name of the 1st “Baani” written in Guru Granth Sahib, Authored by Guru Nanak the first. All writings of Guru Nanak revolve around JAP. As per Guru Nanak the Great, JAP is the supreme path for reaching unto GOD. “Japo tan eko Nama, avar niraphal kama”. On top of JAP is written “Mangla Charan.” This Mangla Charan is that of Guru Granth Sahib as well as that of Japji. From the time immemorial, writing of Manglacharan, at the beginning of any spiritual book, had become mendatory trandition, in the world of spiritual writers. Mostly this Mangal had been done in praises of lord GANESHA, and the Goddess SARASWATI. The concept behind all this was, that lord Ganesh is the Siddhidata (the giver of all material wealth). As a matter of fact, Sidh and Budh are two basic demands of mankind. Sidhi includes all material wealth’s of the world and Budhi includes all knowledge’s of the Universe. As material is the need of the body, so is the knowledge food for the mind. Why is this? How is this?..?..? This desire for knowing everything about everything is already existent in the mankind. That is, mankind does not only want to have everything but also want to know about
everything. When a person wants to know every information about something or somebody, and does not get that, he becomes restless, as a Hungary person for food, and gets satisfied only, when he gets full information sought for, or to say when all this queries are fully answered. So again to say that from time immemorial, Mangals had been sung in praises of Surasti and Ganesh and the perception remained prevalent in the world of spiritual writers, that Siddhidata is GANESH and Buddhidata is SARASWATI.
In the flow of time, and in the line of spiritual masters, came Guru Nanak. He separated out, from this tradition, and sang the Mangal of creator, and not the creation. And his (Guru Nanak’s) conception that Sikh and Budh can be had from any other source, then it is needless to worship Almighty God. So the Mangal Sung by Guru Nanak is considered the worship Almighty God. So the Mangal sung by Guru Nanak is considered the MOOLMANTRA, and Mangalacharan of Guru Granth Sahib, and also Manglacharan of Japji. And this Mangal starts from “IK” one. That is Sidhi can be had from one, and Budhi can be had from One (GOD). Creation, sustenance. and destruction is from one
and only one. The power behind all creation is one, and all diversity is from the unity, a and is sustained also by the same. When Guru Nanak got assimilated in to one, he spoke also one. IKONGKAR ic.. he is one, and is O NG KAR (Creator, Administrator and destroyer).
And that Ikongkar, Guru Nanak proclaims is SAT (a derivation Stay) which means, has got permanent existence. And that Sat Sarup (Permanent Beautiful Being) has name. In India, it is an idiom, a person with great fame, is said to have a name, for instance, all educated people on the world at this time know, that there is one guy who has got a name Reagan, and there is another guy who has also a big name, Garbachay, that is they have name. In other words Guru Nanak says that Sat sar up, has real permanent name. Has true fame in all the times.
And that who has existence and name, is not a creation, rather is a creator. And is such a creator, that he is prevalent in all his creation. He is not an ordinary creator, for instance, a toymaker is in his own home, an artist has made art pieces. Art pieces are in some other homes, and artist is in his own home. God is not that type of creator, whose creation could only be separated from him. Whatever he has made, maybe a crystal of sand, or a big mountain, he is sitting in that. He may be a microorganism or huge life form, it may be tiniest form of energy or may be a huge source of it. i.e. whatever is his creation, he is prevalent in that. And that is word meaning of PURKH (As per dictionary, Puri Puri Basanta Sa Purkhawho is living everywhere, is Purkha). And he is such a KARTAPURKH (omnipresent creator), whose character is, that he is fearless, and enmity less. i.e., NIRBHOU, NIRVAIR. Fear and Enmity are two great drawbacks. To maintain enmity towards any body, or to remain afraid of anybody. Such a person does not need to go to any hell, this itself is a deep hell. Many a times we see, that we don’t like enemy but we do maintain the enmity. If enemy is bad then enmity is definitely bad. And that KARTA PURKH is fearless, and that too is obvious, as there is no bigger or more powerful than him. Fear is always that of bigger, or more powerful, and enmity is always with rivals. Neither is any other being bigger or powerful than him nor there is any rival of him. Guru Nanak says “Tis ka Sareek ko nahin, na ko kantak hairaee”” And that Satsarup, Karta Purkh, who is without any enmity, and fear, is also beyond the effect of time, that is AKAL. He neither has past nor future. Future and past cannot be connected with him. We cannot say that God had been, as he is not a phenomenon of past, We cannot say that God will be, as he is not an expectation of future. We can only say that God is. He is not in the limits of past present and future, rather he is watching past present and future. He is not affected by time, even time itself is his own creation. Furthermore, in the world of Param Anand (Total Happiness) time has no meaning. For a person in wait, time becomes alongated. For a sick person time becomes bigger. And during happy times time becomes small. We all know this fact, that whenever we are in some happy mood, we state that this day has passed like a moment, and when in restless, or in trouble, or waiting, we feel time is not passing. Each minute seems to be longer than hours and we say this day has become like mountain, each moment seems like a YUG (smallest yug is said to be 125,000 years). Trouble, may be worldly, or spiritual, time becomes alongated.
Guru Arjan (Guru Nanak the Fifth) states “char pehr chouhn jJugahn samaney, raen bhai tab ant na Janey” ie., O, God! in thy separation, Char pahr (12 hour day) have become four yugas (Sat, Duapar, Treta and Kali) and time, there is no day and night. The knowledge of time to us is due to sun and rotation of earth around its own axis, and the sun. Otherwise, there Is no night or day, i.e., time gets lost. We can only say God is and is. Guru Nanak says God is beyond the concept of time. “AKAL”.
Because of above considerations, it may not be perceived that it is just an imagination, Guru Nanak says MOORAT (MoortiStructured) it has structure, and existent structure. But from the word. structure, it may not be derived, that somebody else has made it, or created it, or has given birth to it, Guru Nanak further states that he is AJOONI i.e., beyond the cycle of birth and death, nobody has given him birth. He has got a structure, but nobody has created or built, or given birth to him.
How that MOORAT came into existence, if nobody has built, given birth or constructed? Guru Nanak says, he is SAIBHANG (He is his own creation). He himself has created himself and he himself has taken a name. Secondly has created nature and has loved to sit in that (Aappee ne aap sajio, aapine rachio naon, dooee kudrat sajiye, kar aasan ditho chao). And is capable of becoming infinitely small (Jab udkarkh kara kartara, praja dharat tab deh apaara, jab akarakh karat ho kab hoon tab main millat deh dhar sabhoon) i.e., saibhang he is by his own self.
Such a perfection, such a Param Atma (completely perfect super soul) is GURU (light, brightness, knowledge, wisdom guru means that who brings to light from darkness) giver of GIAAN (knowledge). Such super soul that is Guru is from before the beginning of time, is Aad Guru GOD HIMSELF. For example, to the insect kingdom also God has blessed the information of leading a life, rearing their offshoots, bringing them up, finding food, and leading their own span of life, they don’t go to any prenatal classes, they don’t go to any schools, or universities. Even spiders are good architects, a lot of structural information is derived from their webs. While they have never been to school of architecture. Some birds build beautiful nests, and we wonder some time how do they do like that. Nobody teaches them, even then all this information God has blessed them. This clarifies, that he himself is the guiding force in all creation. Blesse of knowledge is only God himself, and because of his this faculty of giving the knowledge and information, he is GURU.
And that Guru is Prasad, kind, loving, and giving. This is Mangal of Japji, is also Mangal of Guru Granth Sahib, and is considered Mool Mantra (Root of Mantras) in Sikh religion.
Article extracted from this publication >> December 27, 1985
