Panj Gunਪੰਜ ਗੁਣ

The Panj Gun, the Five Virtues in Sikhism, are Sat (truth), Santokh (contentment), Daya (compassion), Nimrata (humility) and Pyar (love). The Sikh Gurus taught that cultivating these qualities trains the mind toward God, weakens the five thieves within, and shapes a life of honest work and selfless service.

What are the Panj Gun, the five virtues in Sikhism?

The Panj Gun are the five virtues commonly recognised in Sikhism, the positive qualities a Sikh works to develop through life. SikhiWiki and Wikipedia give the same five: Sat, Santokh, Daya, Nimrata and Pyar, also spelled Pyaar. Gun is the Punjabi word for a quality or virtue, and panj means five. The five are not a checklist to complete once. They are habits of mind to be practised daily, in the family, at work and in the congregation.

The goal behind them is Mukti, reunion or merging with God. The Gurus taught that every human being already carries the qualities needed for that reunion, but the mind must be trained to make the most of them. SikhiWiki sets out two kinds of person. The gurmukh, literally Guru facing, keeps the mind turned toward God and acts out of compassion rather than selfishness. The manmukh, self facing, is led by desire, doubt and greed, and stays full of sorrow. The virtues are how a manmukh mind is retrained into a gurmukh one.

Sat and Santokh: truth and contentment

Sat, truth, comes first, and it means far more than not telling lies. SikhiWiki explains that God is Truth, so practising truth is living in line with the true nature of reality and in accordance with Hukam, the divine order. Wikipedia, summarising Gobind Singh Mansukhani, defines truthful living as practising righteousness, honesty, justice, impartiality and fair play. SikhiWiki adds its everyday shape: acting justly, treating everyone as an equal and avoiding criticism of others. A line quoted in the reference literature sums up the order of value: the highest virtue of all is truth, but higher still is truthful living. Gurbani pictures the result on ang 600 of Guru Granth Sahib Ji: the Lord's humble servants are true, they practise truth and reflect on the Shabad, and the True Lord unites them with Himself.

Santokh, contentment, is freedom from the restless wanting that keeps the mind unsettled. Mansukhani, quoted on Wikipedia, calls it freedom from ambition, envy, greed and jealousy, and adds that without contentment it is impossible to acquire peace of mind. SikhiWiki gives the same teaching in the language of Hukam: instead of constantly thinking how to satisfy personal desires, Sikhs accept the circumstances of their lives as God's Will and act in accordance with it, and contentment leads to freedom from care, fear and worry. Guru Granth Sahib Ji joins the first virtues in a single line on ang 51: practice truth, contentment and kindness, this is the most excellent way of life, and the one so blessed renounces selfishness and becomes the dust of all.

Daya and Nimrata: compassion and humility

Daya, compassion, turns the mind outward. Wikipedia, again following Mansukhani, describes its exercise as considering another's difficulty or sorrow as one's own and helping to relieve it as far as possible, and it includes overlooking the imperfections and mistakes of others, because to err is human. SikhiWiki calls Daya a divine quality and a basic moral requirement in Sikh ethics, and quotes Guru Granth Sahib Ji, ang 299: keep your heart content and cherish compassion for all beings, this way alone can your holy vow be fulfilled. Ang 136 makes the point with striking force: be kind to all beings, this is more meritorious than bathing at the sixty eight sacred shrines of pilgrimage and the giving of charity. Compassion outranks ritual.

Nimrata, humility, is translated by both SikhiWiki and Wikipedia as humility, benevolence or humbleness, and SikhiWiki notes that Gurbani promotes it vigorously. Its best known line is on ang 470 of Guru Granth Sahib Ji, in the words of Guru Nanak Dev Ji: Mithat nivi Nanaka, gun changiaian tat, humility, says Nanak, is the essence, the very root of all virtues. Another line, on ang 273, says simply that the God conscious being is steeped in humility. Nimrata is the direct opposite of ego. Where ego insists on its own importance, humility makes room for God and for other people, which is why the tradition can call it the root from which the other virtues grow. It is practised in small things: listening before speaking, serving without display, and doing seva in the sangat without seeking the front seat.

Pyar: love at the centre

Pyar, also written Pyaar and Pyare, is love, and in Sikh teaching it is love of God first, overflowing into love for God's creation. Wikipedia states the requirement plainly: Pyaar requires Sikhs to be filled with the love of God. SikhiWiki describes it as perhaps the most God like characteristic of all: when the mind is full of love, a person overlooks deficiency in others and accepts them wholeheartedly, forgives easily, never hates anyone, and lives in Hukam while practising compassion and humility. Gurbani gives it colour on ang 16, quoted by SikhiWiki: my mind is imbued with the Lord's Love, it is dyed a deep crimson, truth and charity are my white clothes. On ang 139 the body itself is enlisted: let the fear of God be your feet, and let His love be your hands, let His understanding be your eyes. Love, in this teaching, is not a mood. It is what the hands do.

How do the Panj Gun answer the Panj Chor?

Every Sikh knows the other pentad, the Panj Chor, the five thieves who dwell within the body: Kam (lust), Krodh (anger), Lobh (greed), Moh (attachment) and Ahankar (ego). Gurbani says they plunder the nectar within while the self willed manmukh does not realise it. The virtues are the deliberate counterpart to that picture. Sikh teaching does not only name the disease: it trains the opposite strengths. Read side by side, the pattern is plain, even though Gurbani does not set out a rigid one to one table. Sat answers the falsehood the thieves hide in. Santokh starves Lobh, because a contented mind stops grasping. Daya softens Krodh, because anger cannot easily survive treating another's sorrow as your own. Nimrata dismantles Ahankar and the haumai, the egoity SikhiWiki calls the basis of all the other evils. Pyar redirects Kam and Moh, turning desire and attachment toward God and service. The thieves steal the mind outward into craving; the virtues gather it back.

Why do some lists name Khima or other virtues?

Readers comparing sources will notice that not every list of five is identical, and honesty requires saying so. The five named in this entry are the list given by both SikhiWiki and Wikipedia as the virtues commonly recognised in Sikhism. Wikipedia also records a different scholarly list: William Hewat McLeod, in The A to Z of Sikhism, gives the five as truth, contentment, compassion, patience, and fulfilment of dharma. Patience is Khima in Punjabi, the virtue of patience and forgiveness, and it is Khima that some summaries place among the five where others name Nimrata. The difference is one of grouping, not of substance. Cole and Sambhi, quoted in the same reference tradition, point out that unlike the vices, which are usually spoken of as five, there is no limit on the number of virtues: their list includes truth, purity, temperance, contentment, forgiveness, justice and patience alongside the five here. The Panj Gun are best read as the five at the centre of a wider field of virtues.

How are the five virtues practised in daily life?

The virtues are trained, not merely admired, and Sikh life has daily disciplines for training them. Naam Japna, repeating and remembering the Name of God, and Simran, meditative remembrance, turn the mind toward God through the day, which SikhiWiki names as the way the virtues become part of the personality: it is the Sikh's duty to meditate and recite Gurbani so that these qualities take root. Japji Sahib, read each morning, opens the day with truth and humility. The sangat, the congregation, is the school where the virtues are rehearsed together, and seva, selfless service, is where Daya and Nimrata stop being ideas and become work: serving food in the langar, helping a neighbour, giving time without payment or praise. Kirat Karo, honest earning, is where Sat is tested, in the accounts, the workplace and the home. Sikhs recognise that this training is lifelong and uneven: SikhiWiki notes that not everyone achieves it in this present life and that people stand at different stages, but the direction is the same for all, toward the gurmukh mind and, at the end of the journey, Mukti.