ਸਬਦਸਬਦ

ਸਬਦ ਸਿੱਖ ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ ਦਾ ਇੱਕ ਬੰਦ ਹੈ, ਜੋ ਅਕਸਰ ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ ਜੀ ਦੇ ਸ਼ਬਦਾਂ ਵਿੱਚੋਂ ਇੱਕ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ। ਹਰ ਸਬਦ ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ ਵਿੱਚ ਲਿਖਿਆ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ ਅਤੇ ਕਿਸੇ ਰਾਗ ਵਿੱਚ ਬੱਝਾ ਹੁੰਦਾ ਹੈ, ਅਤੇ ਗੁਰਦੁਆਰੇ ਵਿੱਚ ਸਬਦ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਕੀਰਤਨ ਵਜੋਂ ਗਾਏ ਜਾਂਦੇ ਹਨ। ਸਬਦ ਦਾ ਅਰਥ ਰੱਬ ਦਾ ਪਵਿੱਤਰ ਨਾਂ, ਵਾਹਿਗੁਰੂ, ਵੀ ਹੈ।

What is a shabad?

Shabad comes from the Sanskrit shabda, meaning word or speech sound. In Sikhism it has a precise meaning: a hymn, or a section of the holy text. The shabads are the verses that make up Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the Sikh scripture, and the word is also used for hymns in other Sikh scriptures, such as Deh Siva Var Mohe from the Dasam Granth.

A shabad is not a song written for performance. It is the Guru's word, received and recorded, and Sikhs treat it as guidance for life: to be listened to, sung, understood, believed and lived by. That is why the shabad stands at the centre of Sikh worship, and why the gurdwara exists around the book that holds the shabads.

The first shabad in Guru Granth Sahib Ji is the ਮੂਲ ਮੰਤਰ, the root mantra that opens the book: Ik Onkar, Sat Nam, Karta Purakh, Nirbhau, Nirvair, Akal Murat, Ajuni, Saibhang, Gur Prasad. It states, in a single line, what the whole scripture teaches about the One Creator.

How shabads are organised in Guru Granth Sahib

Guru Granth Sahib Ji is organised by raag, the musical measure in which a hymn is meant to be sung. Each chapter of the book gathers the shabads of one raag, and the Guru used 31 raags for the compositions in the Granth. The book has 1,430 pages in its standard printed edition.

The opening section stands outside the raag chapters: ਜਪੁਜੀ ਸਾਹਿਬ, the composition of ਗੁਰੂ ਨਾਨਕ ਦੇਵ ਜੀ that begins the book, runs from page 1 to page 7. The musical hymns then run from page 8 to page 1351. The closing sections, saloks and swaiyyas and the Ragmala index of musical measures, run to page 1430.

Within the raag chapters, shabads are grouped by their form, the number of verses in the hymn. The commonest form is the chaupada, a hymn of four verses: the Granth holds 1,255 of them. There are 608 dupadas of two verses, 73 tripadas of three, 80 panchpadas of five, 311 ashtpadis of eight, and 62 sohilas of sixteen verses. The order within each raag runs by form, then by author, so that a reader can find any hymn by its raag, its form and its writer.

Shabad kirtan: how shabads are sung

In a gurdwara, shabads are sung, not read aloud in a monotone. This singing is shabad kirtan, and it is the main act of worship in the Sikh congregation. Trained singers, the raagis, lead the singing with harmonium and tabla, and the congregation joins in the refrain. The music follows the raag given for the shabad, so the melody is part of the hymn itself.

Only certain compositions may be sung in a gurdwara: shabads from Guru Granth Sahib Ji and the Dasam Granth, and the compositions of Bhai Gurdas Ji and Bhai Nand Lal Ji. The morning and evening services are built around kirtan, and a full divan moves between kirtan, the reading of the hukamnama, and the ardas.

Kirtan is also how most Sikhs first learn the shabads. A child who cannot yet read Gurmukhi will know the shabads by their tunes, and a shabad heard at a wedding, a funeral or a festival stays with the listener long after the words on the page are forgotten. That is the point of setting the scripture to music: the teaching is carried by the tune as much as by the text.

The best-known shabads

The best-known shabad of all is the Mool Mantar, the first words of the book, which every Sikh learns by heart. After it comes Japji Sahib, the opening composition, recited each morning as part of the daily prayers, and ਸੁਖਮਨੀ ਸਾਹਿਬ, the long composition of ਗੁਰੂ ਅਰਜਨ ਦੇਵ ਜੀ that Sikhs recite for peace of mind.

Asa di Var, the ballad in the raag Asa, is sung in the early morning in gurdwaras, and its verses on honest living are among the most quoted in the scripture. ਸ਼ਬਦ ਹਜ਼ਾਰੇ, the ten shabads of ਗੁਰੂ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸਿੰਘ ਜੀ ਨੇ, includes Deh Siva Var Mohe, the prayer for the strength to do good and to fight for what is right, which Sikhs sing at moments of resolve.

Many shabads are known by their first line, the way a song is known by its opening words, and a shabad is often chosen for an occasion by its theme: a wedding, a birth, a festival, or a time of grief. The same shabad can be sung in Amritsar, in Toronto and in London, in the same raag, by congregations who have never met, and that shared singing is one of the things that holds the worldwide Sikh community together.

What else does shabad mean?

In Sikhism the word shabad carries a second, deeper meaning: the holy Name of God, Waheguru. The shabad is not only the written hymn but the divine Word itself, the sound through which God is known. To repeat the Name, to listen to the shabad and to live by it, is the path the Gurus taught.

This is why the book is called the Guru. The shabads are not the words of men writing about God; in Sikh belief they are the Guru's own utterance, and Guru Granth Sahib Ji is treated as the living Guru, enthroned, fanned with the chaur, and consulted for guidance through the hukamnama. The word on the page and the Word it speaks of are one.

The idea of the Word as the way to God is older than Sikhism. The Sanskrit shabda was the subject of Indian philosophy of language for centuries, and the same teaching of an inner sound runs through the Sant tradition. In Sikhism it takes its own form: the shabad is heard in the gurdwara, sung in kirtan, and carried in the mind through the day.

How can I hear a shabad?

The simplest way is to visit a gurdwara for a morning or evening divan, when the kirtan is sung. Sit with the congregation, listen, and follow the words in a translation if one is provided. Many gurdwaras print the shabad of the day with its meaning, and the hukamnama is read aloud so that everyone hears the day's order.

Recordings of shabad kirtan are widely available, from the great raagis of Amritsar and Delhi to recordings made in gurdwaras around the world. A good place to start is with Japji Sahib in the morning, or with a single shabad repeated until its words settle: the Mool Mantar, or the evening prayer, ਕੀਰਤਨ ਸੋਹਿਲਾ.

To read the shabads yourself, the text of Guru Granth Sahib Ji is available with translations in print and online, arranged by page, so that a shabad heard in a gurdwara can be found and studied at home. Each shabad carries its page number, its raag and its author, and those three facts are enough to find it again.