ਰਹਿਰਾਸ ਸਾਹਿਬਰਹਿਰਾਸ ਸਾਹਿਬ

Rehras Sahib is the daily evening prayer of the Sikhs, recited at sunset as the second great prayer of the day in ਨਿਤਨੇਮ. It is not one hymn by one Guru but a gathering: the nine hymns of So Dar and So Purakh from the Guru Granth Sahib, Guru Gobind Singh Ji's Chaupai Sahib from the Dasam Granth, six stanzas of Anand Sahib, and the closing Mundavani. A Sikh who has worked all day stops at dusk, and the prayer turns the end of the day into gratitude, protection and rest in God's will.

What is Rehras Sahib?

Rehras Sahib, also written Rahiras and often called So Dar Rehras after its opening hymn, is the evening prayer prescribed in the Sikh Rehat Maryada to be recited after sunset, followed by ਅਰਦਾਸ. The name itself is explained in two ways: as supplication, and, from the Persian, as the straight path, the path of faith and devotion rather than empty ritual. The word occurs inside the prayer itself, in a hymn of Guru Ram Das Ji: the praise of the Lord, he says, is my rahrasi. The prayer as Sikhs recite it today is the form carried in the gutkas issued by the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee.

What is inside Rehras Sahib?

The Rehat Maryada lists the prayer's parts in order. First come nine hymns of the Guru Granth Sahib, standing in the scripture straight after Japji Sahib: the five hymns of So Dar, That Door, and the four of So Purakh, That Being. Then comes the Benti Chaupai of Guru Gobind Singh Ji, from its first line, Hamri karo hath dai rachha, to its last, Dusht dokh te leho bachai, together with the savaiya Pae gahe jab te tumre and the dohra Sagal duar ko chhad kai that tradition recites with it. Then come the first five and the last stanzas of Anand Sahib, and finally the Mundavani, the seal, with the slok of Guru Arjan Dev Ji beginning Tera kita jato nahi. Across its parts, the prayer carries hymns of five Gurus: Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Guru Amar Das Ji, Guru Ram Das Ji, Guru Arjan Dev Ji and Guru Gobind Singh Ji.

What does So Dar describe?

So Dar, That Door or That Portal, opens the prayer with Guru Nanak Dev Ji's vision of the court of God. At that door, the whole creation sings: wind, water and fire, the righteous judge and the scribes of deeds, gods and siddhas, saints and scholars, the holy places, the sources of life, the planets themselves, all are pictured praising the one Supreme Being and moving in perfect unison with his will. The hymns that follow in So Dar press the same wonder from other sides: how great God is, beyond all telling and all measure; that he neither dies nor grieves, and that remembering him is life itself; and the plea for the gift of the Name. So Purakh, That Being, by Guru Ram Das Ji, then praises the One who is both beyond the world and inside every heart, above fear and beyond measure, eternal, Creator and Sustainer, and it teaches that those who remember him are freed from fear, while it is the devoted, not the merely formal worshipper, who finds him.

How did Rehras Sahib take its present shape?

The prayer grew by tradition rather than arriving as a single text, and the sources are honest about that: the title Rehras does not occur as a heading in the Guru Granth Sahib, and the full text is not recorded there as one whole. Bhai Gurdas records that in Guru Nanak Dev Ji's time So Dar alone was recited in the evening assemblies. Guru Arjan Dev Ji added the So Purakh hymns, and the two were recorded together in the Guru Granth Sahib after Japji Sahib. The Chaupai, the Anand stanzas and the Mundavani were joined to them afterwards, and the complete prayer came down the generations in gutkas, with small variations between editions, until the SGPC gutka form became the accepted standard. Printed pothis of the evening prayer were appearing at Lahore from 1867 and at Amritsar by 1893.

Why does Rehras Sahib include Chaupai Sahib and Anand Sahib?

Each added part does a different work at the close of day. Chaupai Sahib is the prayer's plea for protection: protect me with Your own hands, it asks, and save me from wickedness and pain, words a person carries out of the working day and into the night. The six stanzas of Anand Sahib answer protection with joy: they are the opening five and the closing stanza of Guru Amar Das Ji's hymn of bliss, and the Rehat Maryada notes that Anand is recited at Rehras, as at the end of congregational gatherings, to express joy and gratitude for communion with the Guru. The Mundavani then seals the prayer as it seals the Guru Granth Sahib itself: Guru Arjan Dev Ji presents the scripture as a plate holding three things, truth, contentment and contemplation, and gives thanks that the great task was brought to completion.

When and how is Rehras Sahib recited today?

Rehras Sahib is recited every evening after sunset, in gurdwaras as the centre of the evening diwan and at home by Sikhs who cannot reach the congregation, and kirtan is often sung before or after it. In the gurdwara the day is ordered around it: the Guru Granth Sahib generally remains open until Rehras is concluded, and is then closed ceremonially for the night. The recitation is followed by Ardas, standing, and the evening closes later with ਕੀਰਤਨ ਸੋਹਿਲਾ before sleep. For the individual Sikh, Rehras is the hinge of the day: work stops, the mind is gathered out of the day's noise into the singing court of So Dar, and the day is handed back to God with thanks before night comes.