9781422279748

The Mul Mantra

Sahib, one of the prayers that Sikhs say each morning. Sikhs believe in one God, who created the world and is present in everything. Not only do all living beings—from people to animals to insects and flowers—have God’s jot in them, but so too do inanimate objects. Sikhs believe in treating all people equally and in caring for the environ- ment. Sikhs believe that all living beings and other objects have a beginning, an existence, and an end. When this physical existence finishes, Sikhs believe, God’s jot within the being returns to earth in the form of another physical existence. This is called reincarnation, and is part of a con- The Mul Mantra is the most widely known part of Sikh scripture. It is written in the Gurmukhi alphabet, a special script created just for Sihk scriptures for the Punjabi language. Because of this, it is chal- lenging to translate accurately. One translation that comes close to the ideas of the original is as follows: “One God, the Creator of the Universe, Beyond Fear, Beyond Hatred, Beyond Death, Beyond Birth, Self-Existent, by the Guru’s Grace.” T he Mul Mantra is a statement of belief that was written by the first guru, Nanak, the founder of Sikhism. It is the first text of the Guru Granth Sahib, the holy scriptures of Sikhism, and it is repeated more than 100 other times in the scriptures.

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Sikhism