Sukhmani Sahibਸੁਖਮਨੀ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Sukhmani Sahib is a long prayer of peace composed by Guru Arjan Dev Ji, the fifth Sikh Guru, at Amritsar around 1602. Set in Raag Gauri and placed at Ang 262 to 296 of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, its 24 ashtpadis teach remembrance of the Name, the company of the holy and humility, and Sikhs recite it, alone or together, as one of the most loved banis of their faith.

What is Sukhmani Sahib?

The name explains the prayer. Sukh is peace or comfort, and mani is a jewel, so Sukhmani is the jewel of peace; the word is also read as the treasure of the mind, and English translations call it the Prayer of Peace or the Psalm of Peace. In the scripture its full title is Gauri Sukhmani, after the raag in which it is set. Its own refrain, the single rahaao of the composition, states its promise: Sukhmani sukh amrit prabh naam, bhagat jana ke man bisram. In the Sukhmani are peace and the ambrosial Name of God, and it rests in the minds of the devotees.

The 24 ashtpadis: how it is built

Sukhmani Sahib is built with unusual regularity. It has 24 ashtpadis, cantos. Each ashtpadi opens with a salok, a couplet that states its theme, and then unfolds in eight pauris, and each pauri has ten lines made of five couplets: 192 pauris in all. The first seven pauris of an ashtpadi explore the theme of its salok, and the eighth lifts it into praise, so that canto by canto the great themes return: remembrance, grace, the holy company, humility. The eighth ashtpadi, on the Brahm Giani, the God realised person who is the same to friend and foe, is among the most quoted passages in all of Sikh scripture.

Where and when was it composed?

Guru Arjan Dev Ji composed Sukhmani Sahib around 1602, beside the Ramsar sarovar in Amritsar, then a pool in thick woods at the edge of the young city he was building. It was at the same Ramsar that he then dictated the Adi Granth to Bhai Gurdas Ji in 1603 to 1604, with Sukhmani Sahib among its treasures. Tradition adds a beloved detail. Baba Sri Chand, the elder son of Guru Nanak Dev Ji, came to Amritsar to meet the Guru while the work was in progress. Sixteen ashtpadis were complete, and the Guru invited his guest to continue the composition. Sri Chand, in humility, offered only his father's salok from the Japji: Aad sach, jugaad sach, hai bhi sach, Nanak hosi bhi sach. True in the beginning, true through the ages, true even now, and true forever. Guru Arjan Dev Ji placed that salok at the head of the seventeenth ashtpadi, where it still stands, at Ang 285.

What does Sukhmani Sahib teach?

The prayer is a complete map of the Sikh inner life. Its opening ashtpadis praise simran, the remembrance of God, as the act that steadies the mind and outweighs ritual, austerity and even study. It exalts the sadh sangat, the holy company, and the saints, and it warns, in a whole ashtpadi of its own, the thirteenth, against slandering them: the slanderer, the Guru teaches, finds no peace. It dwells on humility, on the meek winning God's love while the arrogant go away empty, on contentment within hukam, the divine order, and on death and the vanity of gathering wealth. The final ashtpadi turns back to the prayer itself and lists what comes to the one who recites it with love: health, wisdom, honour and peace.

Why is it called the prayer of peace?

Because peace is both its subject and its promised effect. Sikh tradition holds that the peace readers feel in the composition is the peace of its author poured into words: Guru Arjan Dev Ji had it from his constant communion with God, and he left it in the bani. One of its shabads has entered every Sikh service. Tu Thakur Tum Peh Ardas, You are our Master, to You we offer this prayer, from the fourth ashtpadi, is sung in gurdwaras before the Ardas is spoken, so that the words of Sukhmani Sahib frame the prayer with which Sikhs close their worship.

How long does Sukhmani Sahib take to recite?

A full reading of Sukhmani Sahib takes about 60 to 90 minutes. It is recited by individuals at home, often in the early morning, and in gurdwaras it is read or sung by the sangat together, in a smaller congregation sometimes turn by turn. Many Sikhs keep it in their daily discipline alongside the banis of Nitnem, and reciting it is believed to bring peace to the mind and to help the reciter remember God constantly. It is also printed entire in the small gutka prayer books Sikhs carry, so that the jewel of peace is never far from the hand.