Japji Sahib

Japji takes its name from one word inside it: Jap. It means to say something quietly and hold it in your mind. Guru Nanak, the first Guru, wrote it. It is the very first composition in the Guru Granth Sahib. Most Sikhs say it early in the morning. It is the one composition with no music set to it; you speak it and think about it. The whole song asks one question. How do you become true? Its answer: stop pushing against Hukam, the way things really work, and walk with it.

Japji Sahib is the opening composition of the Guru Granth Sahib and, by tradition, the first thing a Sikh recites each morning. It is not set to a raag — it stands before the music begins, as the root from which everything after it grows. Composed by Guru Nanak, it is built as a single sustained argument: it opens with a definition, poses a question, and then answers that question from every angle until the answer has become a lived map rather than a proposition.