ਸ਼ਬਦ ਹਜ਼ਾਰੇਸ਼ਬਦ ਹਜ਼ਾਰੇ

Shabad Hazare, also called Shabad Hazare Patshahi 10, is a set of ten hymns by ਗੁਰੂ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ ਨੇ in the ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ. Nine are sung in ragas and one, Mittar Pyare Nu, is a Punjabi khayal that tradition says was composed in the Machhiwara forest. Together they turn the listener from ritual and idol worship to the One.

What is Shabad Hazare?

Shabad Hazare is the title given to ten hymns grouped under the heading Sabad in the ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ, the volume of compositions linked with the court of ਗੁਰੂ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ ਨੇ. The fuller name, Shabad Hazare Patshahi 10, means the Shabad Hazare of the Tenth Sovereign, Patshahi 10 being the Tenth Master. The title itself does not appear in the main text of the hymns; it is the name the tradition gave the collection, and it is the name readers search for.

The meaning of Hazare is not settled, and the honest thing is to say so. The common reading takes it as "one thousand", with a tradition that each shabad carries the merit of a thousand. Other scholars connect the word with the Arabic hijr, separation, which fits the longing that runs through the hymns, or with the Persian hazra, presence. The Sikh Research Institute, in its study of the collection, reads Hazare from hijr and takes the whole title to mean the Tenth Sovereign's yearning for union with the One. This page follows the widely used name and records the readings rather than choosing between them.

One confusion is worth clearing up at the start. The name Shabad Hazare can also refer to a group of seven hymns in Guru Granth Sahib Ji. The ten discussed here belong to the Dasam Granth alone, and they are a different set with a different author and history.

The ten shabads

The ten are listed in the order tradition attributes to Bhai Mani Singh Ji. Nine are set to ragas and one is a khayal, and each opens with a rahau, a pause line that states its theme, except for the sixth.

1. Re man aiso kar sanyasa, Raga Ramkali. The mind is told to practise true renunciation: live at home as if in a forest, let discipline be the matted hair and love of God the ashes.
2. Re man iha bidha jog kamao, Raga Ramkali. True yoga is truth as the horn and contemplation as the ashes, not outer show.
3. Prani param purakh pag lago, Raga Ramkali. Fall at the feet of the Supreme Being and wake from the sleep of attachment.
4. Prabh ju tu keh laaj hamari, Raga Sorath. The Lord keeps our honour; the shabad greets God through many names and forms yet places all refuge in the One.
5. Bin kartar na kirtam mano, Raga Kalyan. Worship the Creator, not the creation; no avatar or created being can save.
6. Mittar pyare nu, Khayal. Tell the beloved Friend the state of the devotees, separated and suffering without Him.
7. Kewal kal hi kartar, Raga Tilang Kaafi. Only Kaal, Time itself, is the Creator; praise and blame do not touch the Lord.
8. So kim manas roop kahai, Raga Bilawal. How can God be said to have a human form, when even the sages could not find His limits?
9. Ek bin dusar na ko chinar, Raga Devgandhari. Know the One alone; stone images cannot eat the offerings or grant blessings.
10. Bin har naam na bachan paayi hai, Raga Devgandhari. Without the Name of God there is no release; the Vedas, the Puranas and the Koran all call Him infinite.

What do the shabads teach?

The thread through all ten is a single argument made ten ways: outward religion without inward devotion is empty. The first three shabads take the dress of the sanyasi and the yogi, matted hair, ashes, begging bowl and horn, and refill each item with an inward meaning. Renunciation becomes detachment while living in the world; yoga becomes truthfulness and single-minded remembrance. The Guru does not mock the seeker; he redirects the search from costume to character.

The same test is applied to worship. The fifth, seventh, eighth and ninth shabads refuse the worship of created things, whether deities, avatars or stone images, and insist that only the Creator, who has no form, no birth and no caste, deserves devotion. The fourth and tenth answer the question that refusal raises: if God cannot be pictured, how do we reach Him? By taking refuge at His feet and holding to His Name.

The poetry belongs to the Bishanpade tradition of short devotional songs, and nine of the ten are composed in Braj with many Sanskrit words. Each raga shabad is built the same way: a rahau line that states the theme, then three padas that unfold it. That musical shape matters, because the shabads were made to be sung, and the raga named at the head of each one is part of the teaching, not decoration. Six ragas appear here in total, Ramkali, Sorath, Kalyan, Tilang Kaafi, Bilawal and Devgandhari, and these are the only ragas found anywhere in the ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ.

Why is Mittar Pyare Nu so loved?

The sixth shabad stands apart, and listeners have always known it. It is the only one of the ten in Punjabi, with Persian words woven in, and the only one cast as a khayal rather than a raga composition. Its opening line, Mittar pyare nu haal mureedan da kehna, asks the beloved Friend to hear the state of the devotees.

Tradition places its composing in the Machhiwara forest, in the days after the battle of Chamkaur, when Guru Gobind Singh Ji was separated from his family and his followers in the cold of winter. The shabad itself gives no date or place, and the account comes down as tradition, not as a dated record. But the words fit the story the Panth has kept: without the Beloved, warm quilts feel like sickness, a comfortable house feels like living with snakes, the drinking flask is a thorn and the cup a dagger, and sleeping on bare ground beside the Friend is better than living in a mansion that burns like a furnace.

That plain, personal cry is why the shabad has travelled so far beyond the gurdwara. It is sung in kirtan across the world, and it has been recorded by singers far outside the Sikh tradition, including Mohammed Rafi, Ustad Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Jagjit Singh and Hans Raj Hans. For many listeners who know nothing else of the ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ, Mittar Pyare Nu is the doorway into it.

Where does Shabad Hazare sit in the Dasam Granth?

In the standard ordering of the Dasam Granth, Shabad Hazare follows the Rudra Avtar and the long Chaubis Avtar section, and comes just before the 33 Savaiye. It sits among the devotional compositions of the volume, between the retellings of older stories and the hymns of praise, which is fitting: after the avatars have been narrated, the Guru steps back and states what the stories were for.

The collection reached its present shape after the Guru's lifetime, when the compositions of his court were gathered into a single volume. Tradition attributes the ordering of these ten hymns to Bhai Mani Singh Ji. Early manuscripts do not all contain the set, and scholars have long debated the authorship of parts of the Dasam Granth as a whole. The Sikh Research Institute notes the sharp divide between those who defend and those who question the volume, and urges both sides to remember that its contents remain inseparable from Sikh tradition. This page follows the Panth's accepted attribution and states the debate plainly rather than hiding it.

Readers coming from ਜਾਪੁ ਸਾਹਿਬ or ਚੌਪਈ ਸਾਹਿਬ will notice the family resemblance and the difference. Jaap Sahib opens the Granth with praise, Chaupai Sahib is read in the daily prayers, and Shabad Hazare sits alongside them as teaching: ten short lessons in what devotion is and is not.

How are the shabads sung today?

The ten are sung in kirtan, most often by raagis in the classical style the ragas demand, and the Sikh Research Institute's project on the collection has published the text with commentary for singers and students. Recordings of the raga shabads circulate from well-known raagis, and some of the shabads were sung in the film Nanak Naam Jahaz Hai.

For a first hearing, start with Mittar Pyare Nu, then the first shabad, Re man aiso kar sanyasa, which states the whole teaching in miniature: the true sanyasi is not the one who leaves the world but the one who lives in it with a detached mind. Standard printed editions of the ਦਸਮ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ carry the full text under the heading Sabad, and the Sikh Research Institute's Sabad Hajare project offers the text with notes on the manuscripts behind it.