Japji Sahib ਜਪੁਜੀ ਸਾਹਿਬ
Morning (Amrit Vela)
The morning prayer composed by Guru Nanak that opens the Guru Granth Sahib — a foundational meditation on the nature of God and the path to the divine.
What it is
The Japji (“recitation”) stands first in the Guru Granth Sahib: the Mool Mantar — the faith’s credal opening, beginning Ik Onkar — followed by thirty-eight stanzas (pauris) and a closing couplet the tradition attributes to Guru Angad. Composed by Guru Nanak, it is recited rather than sung, and is assigned to no raag — it stands outside the musical scheme that orders the rest of the scripture.1,2
What it asks
Its governing question arrives in the first stanza: kiv sachiara hoiai — how is one to become truthful, how is the wall of falsehood broken? The answer unfolds through meditation on the Name, the limits of ritual and cleverness, the ordering power of divine command (hukam), and, in the closing movement, the five ascending realms (khands) — of duty, knowledge, effort, grace and truth.1,2
When it is read
Japji is the heart of the morning nitnem at amrit vela, the still hours before dawn that Sikh practice prizes for remembrance, and it is among the banis recited in the preparation of amrit at initiation. Many Sikhs know it entire by heart.1,2
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