Panj Chorਪੰਜ ਚੋਰ

The Panj Chor, Punjabi for the Five Thieves, are the five inner weaknesses Sikh teaching warns against above all others: Kam (lust), Krodh (anger), Lobh (greed), Moh (attachment) and Ahankar (ego). They are called thieves because they live within the body itself and quietly steal clear judgement, peace of mind and the awareness of God.

What are the five thieves in Sikhism?

The five thieves in Sikhism are Kam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh and Ahankar. The same group is also called the Panj Vikar, the five vices, and the Panj Dokh, the five defects, and in Gurbani the word evil in this teaching can carry the sense of the Punjabi pap (sin), dokh (defect) or kilbikh (defilement). Many human failings exist, SikhiWiki explains, but this group of five came to be named together because of the obstruction they cause in a person's pursuit of the moral and spiritual path. Theologically, no special significance attaches to the number five itself: these five failures are simply the ones believed to be the strongest hindrances to spiritual progress.

The image of the thief comes straight from the Guru Granth Sahib Ji. A hymn on page 600 of the scripture says that within this body dwell the five thieves, sexual desire, anger, greed, emotional attachment and egotism, and that they plunder the nectar while the self willed manmukh does not realise it, and no one hears his complaint. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism tradition gathered in the SikhiWiki article notes that the scripture gives no single philosophical lecture on the five as a set. Instead the warning is repeated throughout Gurbani, and the five are described as diseases or maladies that afflict human beings with serious effects. In at least five passages the list is the same five, Kam, Krodh, Lobh, Moh and Abhiman or Ahankar, and in two of the passages the five are called by the name this page carries: panj chor, the five thieves. The antidote begins with Naam Japna, remembering God, which the rest of this page returns to.

Kam, Krodh and Lobh: desire, anger and greed

Kam is lust, desire that has escaped its proper place. Sikh teaching does not condemn married life or the household: the Gurus themselves lived as householders, and desire within marriage is part of ordinary life. Kam as a thief is desire that rules the mind, weakens the will and pulls a person toward what harms others and themselves. When the scripture lists the evils most often, Kam stands first, and Bhagat Kabir Ji's test of a person who cherishes the Lord is freedom from desire, wrath, greed and attachment together (Guru Granth Sahib Ji, page 1123).

Krodh is rage, uncontrolled anger. A person taken over by anger loses balance of mind and the ability to think clearly, and hatred, which follows anger, has no place in a life turned toward God. Krodh is named in the scripture alongside Kam again and again, including in the triads Kam, Krodh and Lobh and Kam, Krodh and Ahankar that recur through the canon. Lobh, greed, is the intense desire to possess far beyond need: money, goods and property held for their own sake, and even what rightfully belongs to others. Greed makes a person selfish and self centred, crowds out religious and social duty, and is also called lalach in the scripture's varied language. Against Lobh, Sikh life sets honest work and sharing: earn by effort, and give from what you earn.

Moh and Ahankar: attachment and ego

Moh is attachment, the emotional grip of worldly relationships and possessions held as though they will last forever. It is also called bharam, delusion, because it mistakes what passes away for what endures. Moh blurs a person's perspective: family, wealth and status, all good in themselves, become chains when the heart cannot let them take their proper, temporary place. Sikh teaching does not ask anyone to abandon family or work. It asks for love without the delusion that anything in the world is permanent, so that duty is done clearly and loss does not destroy the mind.

Ahankar is ego, excessive pride in possessions, wealth, intelligence, power or status, the feeling that one stands above others. Of the five, Ahankar is condemned in the scripture more than any other single thief, and it is the one most closely tied to the root problem below. Pride breeds jealousy, enmity and restlessness, and it shuts the door on learning, because a person full of self importance cannot sit at anyone's feet. The Sikh answer is practised, not just preached: humility is trained through seva, selfless service, down to simple acts such as caring for the shoes of everyone who comes to the gurdwara, where the proudest and the poorest are served alike.

Haumai: the root beneath the five

Beneath the five thieves stands Haumai, the sense of I, me and mine, self centredness itself. Wikipedia's summary of the teaching puts it plainly: Haumai is traditionally said to be the source of the five evil impulses. The longer treatment on SikhiWiki makes the same point in detail. Haumai is not itself one of the five, yet it receives the strongest censure in the scripture, because the five evils flourish on the soil of belief in one's separate existence. Ahankar can be reckoned an offshoot of Haumai: where the awareness of one's own importance fills the mind, awareness of God is absent, and where egoity disappears, the scripture says, a person merges into the Lord (Guru Granth Sahib Ji, page 750). That is why Sikh moral training aims deeper than behaviour. It aims at the self centred root, not only at the five branches.

How are the Panj Chor overcome?

Sikh teaching is honest that the five are difficult to control: they afflict all beings. But it does not rule out victory. The first way is loving devotion expressed as constant awareness of God. Simran, remembrance of God, is called the panacea for all ills: devotion eradicates the evils and purifies the body (page 245), and the relation runs both ways, because awareness of God comes as the evils depart, and the evils cannot touch a person who lives in that awareness. The second way is the company of the holy. Taking refuge in the sangat, the holy fellowship, kills lust, wrath and greed, and egoity itself ceases in the company of the holy (page 271). The third way is the Guru's instruction: the wisdom received from the Guru is like a swift sword that cuts through confusion, infatuation, greed and egoity (page 1087). A person who lives by that teaching is called a Gurmukh, one turned toward the Guru, and the Gurmukh is described as free from the depravities while living in the Divine presence.

In daily practice these ways take ordinary forms. Morning prayer and the reading of Gurbani, including Japji Sahib, Guru Nanak Dev Ji's morning composition, keep the mind turned toward God before the day's temptations begin. Honest work counters Lobh. Sharing food, time and money counters both greed and attachment. Serving others without payment or praise counters Ahankar. Sitting in sangat, where everyone is equal on the same floor, counters the isolation in which all five thieves grow strongest. None of this is presented as a single victory won once. It is a discipline renewed daily, because the thieves live inside and return quietly, and a Sikh stays watchful in a spirit of Chardi Kala, rising optimism, rather than fear.

The five virtues that answer the thieves

Against the five thieves, Sikh teaching sets the five virtues: Sat (truth), Santokh (contentment), Daya (compassion), Nimrata (humility) and Pyar (love). Each virtue answers a thief directly. Contentment answers greed and restless desire, because a contented person accepts circumstances and acts in line with God's will, and contentment leads to freedom from care, fear and worry. Humility answers ego: Nimrata is vigorously promoted by Gurbani, and a humble mind can learn, serve and forgive. Compassion and love answer anger, because a mind full of love overlooks the faults of others and hates no one. Truth answers the delusion inside Moh, because truthful living means seeing reality as it is, treating everyone as equals and acting justly. The Gurus taught that human beings already carry the qualities they need; the task is to train the mind, day by day, until the virtues, and not the thieves, are what a person acts from.