ਅਨੰਦ ਸਾਹਿਬਅਨੰਦ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Anand Sahib, the Song of Bliss, is the hymn composed by Guru Amar Das Ji, the third Sikh Guru, set in Raag Ramkali at Ang 917 to 922 of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Its 40 pauris begin with a cry of joy, I am in bliss, O my mother, for I have found the True Guru, and they have closed Sikh gatherings ever since: weddings and funerals, mornings and evenings all end with its six best-known pauris sung before the ਅਰਦਾਸ.

What is Anand Sahib?

Anand Sahib is a composition of 40 pauris, or stanzas, by Guru Amar Das Ji, written in Raag Ramkali, the raag associated with the hours before dawn. The word anand means bliss, and the hymn is careful about what kind of happiness it means: not pleasure that rises and falls with fortune, but the settled joy of a mind that has found the True Guru and stays attached to the Naam, the divine Name. It is one of the five banis of the morning ਨਿਤਨੇਮ and, in its short form, the most frequently sung text in Sikh life.

What do the 40 pauris say?

The first pauri announces the discovery: the True Guru is found, the mind fills with congratulatory music, and the raags themselves are pictured arriving with their families to sing the Shabad. The second pauri turns to the mind directly: O my mind, stay always with the Lord, and all sorrows will be forgotten. The third declares that everything is in the True Lord's house, given to whom he chooses, and the fourth makes the True Name the speaker's only support, the food that ends all hunger. In the fifth, the five primal sounds ring out in the fortunate house where the five demons of lust, anger, greed, attachment and pride have been subdued.

The fortieth and final pauri is the one every Sikh knows by heart: Listen to the song of bliss, O fortunate ones, all your longings shall be fulfilled, and pain, sickness and suffering depart from the one who hears the true bani. Between the first pauri and the last, the hymn walks the listener from finding the Guru to keeping the Name at the centre of work, family and grief, which is why the same words fit a wedding morning and a farewell.

Why are only six pauris usually sung?

The full Anand Sahib takes longer than a congregation usually has at the close of a service, so practice settled on the Chhota Anand Sahib: the first five pauris and the fortieth, which together keep the hymn's whole arc, discovery at the start and fulfilment at the end. The Sikh Rehat Maryada prescribes these six pauris at the close of services, at the offering of Karah Prashad, at the beginning and the bhog of a full reading of the Guru Granth Sahib Ji, and within the Anand Karaj wedding. The same six pauris are also included at the end of Rehras Sahib, the evening prayer, so many Sikhs meet them twice a day.

Where was Anand Sahib composed?

Guru Amar Das Ji spent his Guruship at Goindwal, the town he raised on the Beas, and Anand Sahib belongs to his years there. Sikh tradition ties the hymn to a family joy: the birth of his grandson, a son of Baba Mohri, who was named Baba Anand after the composition itself. A fresco of Baba Anand still looks down from above the entrance of the Baoli Sahib at Goindwal, the great stepped well the Guru built, and the town remains the hymn's home in Sikh memory.

Is Anand Sahib the same as the Anand Karaj?

No, though the two share the word anand and belong together. The ਅਨੰਦ ਕਾਰਜ is the Sikh wedding ceremony, whose heart is the four Lavan hymns of Guru Ram Das Ji, sung as the couple circle the Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Anand Sahib is the older hymn by Guru Amar Das Ji, the third Guru and the father-in-law of Guru Ram Das Ji. At a wedding, the six pauris of Anand Sahib are sung after the Lavan to close the ceremony, as they close almost every Sikh service, and it is this hymn that gives the marriage rite its atmosphere of bliss.

How is Anand Sahib recited today?

In full, Anand Sahib is the fifth of the morning Nitnem banis. In its six-pauri form it is sung standing at the end of kirtan in every gurdwara, at the bhog of an ਅਖੰਡ ਪਾਠ, at weddings, at the antim ardas for the departed, and at family occasions happy and sad alike. Raagis sing it in Raag Ramkali and in popular melodies far from the raag, and its final pauri is often the first bani a Sikh child learns by heart, heard so often at the gurdwara that it is known before it is studied.