GIAN (Skt.jnana), knowledge, understanding or consciousness, is what differentiates human beings from the animal world and establishes the superiority of homo sapiens over the other species. Nature has not only provided man with a qualitatively superior brain but has also endowed human mind with a dynamic inner stimulus called jagiasa

HUKAM, Arabic hukm for command, order, decree, law, has acquired in Sikh usage a metaphysical shade connoting the Divine Law or Order, regulating the entire universe. Its importance in Sikh theology is indicated by its occurrence at the very beginning of the Adi Granth (Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh

JIVANMUKTA, in Sikhism the ideal and aim or objective of man`s spiritual life. The term is derived from jivanmukti {j`tvan=`ife; mukli=recasc, liberation, emancipation, freedom from bondage), and means one who has attained liberation from human bondage or one who has attained to the highest spiritual slate of being in tune

LAVAN is the title traditionally given a short fourslan/a composition by Guru Ram Das included under rdga Suhi (p. 773) in the Guru Granth Sahib. The word Idvdn, in the Indian tradition, also stands for the marriage ceremony: in Hindu society the couple reverentially circumambulates the holy fire to

MAYA, written and pronounced in Punjabi as maid. As a philosophic category in the Indian tradition, Maya is interpreted variously as a veil or curtain concealing reality; the phenomenal world as it appears over against things in themselves; the grand illusion or the cosmic principle of illusion. Maya is

PAHAFUE,, usually pronounced pahire, is the title shared by four of the Sikh hymns two by Guru Nanak and one each by Guru Ram Das and Guru Arjanrecorded consecutively in the Siri Rag portion of the Guru Granth Sahib. The term pahareis the plural of pahard, meaning a guard

SAN GRAND, sankranti in Sanskrit, is the first day of each month of the Indian solar calendar, based on the shifting of the sun from one house (rasi) to another. From quite early in human history, the sun, and its satellites, the planets, came to be regarded as objects endowed

SIDH GOSTI, i.e. dicourse or dialogue with the Siddhas or mystics adept in hatha yoga and possessing supernatural powers, is the title of one of Guru Nanak`s longer compositions recorded in the Guru Granth Sahib. A goshti (gostln) seeks to expound the respective doctrines of scholars or saints participating

SYMBOLISM. The poetry of the Guru Granth Sahib is noteworthy especially for the wealth and variety of its images and symbols. The Gurus and sants whose compositions form part of the Holy Book have rendered their mystical and spiritual experience in the idiom of poetry. A large number of similes

YUGAS (AGES): In all the four ages, the True Bani (Divine hymns) is the ambrosia.(Dhanasan M. 3, p- 665) In all the four ages, they are seiled and full of dilt, whose mouths do not utter the Name of the Lord.(Sri Raga M. l, p. 57) The Yugas (ages)

AGHORl or AGHORPANTHI. one of the several Kapalika sects, connected with the Tantrik cult of Saivism, notorious for its cannibalism and other abominable practices. Aghora literally means "not terrible," "not evil," otherwise, "pleasant" or "handsome," and is one of the euphemistic titles of the Hindu god, Siva. Aughar or

ZINDAGI NAMAH, a book of pious poetry in Persian by Bhai Nand Lal Goya, an honoured Sikh of Guru Gobind Singh, whose name continues to be remembered with affection and esteem. A distinction which uniquely belongs to him is that his verse can be sung along with Scriptural hymns at