24 Shabads · 216 Verses
Sukhmani Sahib
The Commentary
Sukhmani Sahib — "the Jewel of Peace" or "Peace of Mind" — is Guru Arjan's masterwork and the largest single composition by any Guru in Raag Gauree: 24 sections, each consisting of a Salok (couplet) followed by an Ashtapadee of eight pauris, framed by an opening salok that the text itself instructs be read "at the beginning, and at the end." Tradition holds it was composed around 1602–1603 at Ramsar, Amritsar. It is among the most-recited banis in Sikh life — read at dawn, over the sick, beside the grieving, at foundations and farewells — because its subject is exactly what its title names: the peace of a mind in which the Name has come to live.
Read the full commentary →Contents
- 1Before Peace, Bow to the Wisdom That Gives It
- 2The Deepest Prayer: God, Be With Me
- 3Who Read Everything Concluded: None Equals the Name
- 4Wake and Remember the One Who Made You
- 5Chase the Gifts and Lose the Giver
- 6The Five Loud Voices Quiet in Sanctuary
- 7The Unreachable Becomes Reachable in Good Company
- 8One Presence Seen Everywhere Is God-Consciousness
- 9Purity That Hides From the World Saves No One
- 10The Creator Has No Edge to Arrive At
- 11One Doer Fills the Waters, Lands, and Skies
- 12Pride Needs No Punisher; It Eats Its Owner
- 13You Become What You Do With Others' Goodness
- 14Pain, Doubt, and Fear Are Children of Misplaced Reliance
- 15All Power, and Full Knowledge of Your Pain
- 16What Has No Shape Cannot Be Grabbed, Only Given
- 17True Then, True Now, True Forever
- 18The Guru Knows the True One Firsthand
- 19Only Love and the Name Go Through the Crossing
- 20The Wandering Ends at a Door, Not a Prize
- 21Creation Is Not the End of His Meditation; It Is It
- 22Can You Find a Second Anywhere?
- 23The World Was Never Dark; the Eyes Were
- 24At the End of the Journey, One Word: Complete