A Sikh Prayer

SWAMI SWAROOPANANDA
The following excerpt is from a new book Tu Thakur Tum
Pe Ardaas: Lord, Receive My Prayer that has not yet been
published. We are very grateful to Swamiji for allowing us to
reproduce this excerpt in Tapovan Prasad.
The Editor

Generally, our attention is

focussed on defining very
carefully what we want, than
in visualising, knowing, and
establishing the One to whom
we are offering our prayers.
This is verily like taking great
pains to write a long letter,
but not knowing well the
recipient of the letter or his
address.
More important than the
content, our prayer needs to be
woven with the fabric of faith.
In short, we need to know
how to pray.
And this we learn through
a beautiful, spontaneous outpouring of Guru Arjan Dev, T
hkuru tuma pagi aradsi, which
forms the last part of the
fourth stanza of his famed
composition, the Sukhmani
Sahib.

prayer is a submission. It
is an offering in humility,
gentleness, and complete
surrender, expressing servitude
and love. It is verily a whisper
from the soul. It reaches out in
confidence, with faith the
faith of a child who puts his
little hand into that of his
parent and wills himself to be
led.
A prayer must therefore
know the One Being prayed
to. We want to know who it is
in whose hand we are placing
ours, who it is whom we trust
to lead us.
Our prayers, worship, and
our conversations with the
Lord are quite often requests
for something be it an object,
a feeling, or resolution of a
confusion within. We go to
Him with a petition.
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November 2009

T hkuru is an ards, a
submission that is done after
worship and krtan at the
gurudwr. The moment of ards
is also when we submit
ourselves to the Lord, when
after the earlier worship
through ritual or chant, we
prepare to unite with the Lord
in surrender. This beautifully
simple ards constructs an inner
environment with the bricks of
prayer, gratitude and surrender, founded on the faith that
He is the giver, the provider,
the parent, and that we need
work only as instruments do,
with unconditional trust and
devotion.
Ards means prayer, or
prrthan. Prayer is always
directed to someone higher or
greater than ourselves. Prayer
is to connect with that Higher
Power. The saints and sages
point out that Higher Power to
us in many different ways. We
pray in order to achieve
through that Higher Power

Tapovan Prasad

what we cannot achieve by

ourselves, the limited beings
we imagine ourselves to be.
Each of us is born with
certain abilities and also with
some limitations. Over and
above this, we manage to
impose other limitations upon
ourselves. We then become
bound by these self-imposed
concepts, for example, the
thought that I am the body.
Prayer is the way to remove
these misconceptions and their
hold over us. It is the means
by which we grow out of limitations; it is the direct route to
tap into the Higher Power.
Thus what we cannot achieve
by ourselves, the Higher
Power achieves through us.
However, for most of us
prayer is often nothing more
than a shopping list of things
we want. Or, if we dont get
them, a charge sheet. In fact,
prayer is not some form of
beggary, but a way of tuning
ourselves to the Higher Power

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who has provided us with all

that we do have. It is an offering of our gratitude to the Lord
for all that we have received.
When we forget the very
source of all, then ego, pride
and arrogance come into our
lives and create the sense of
separateness. From the sense of
separateness arises the feeling
of incompleteness, then desire,
then hatred, and from hatred
are born all our sorrows.
When we remember in
gratitude that everything we
have has come from the Lord,
there will be no ego. Where
there is no ego, there is no
sorrow. Even at a moment of
crisis, we should remember
and rejoice at all the blessings
we have received. We should
feel happy at not having to face
difficulties that perhaps others
have had to face. We should
always remember the times
when we received happiness.
If some things are taken away
now, we must remember that
we still have a lot left. If we

Tapovan Prasad

constantly look at the blessings

in our life, there will be only
happiness, and no sorrow.
What can you do for the
Lord who provides you with
everything? You can only love
the Lord. Love manifests in
remembrance and expresses
itself in service or sev. People
go to saints in difficult times,
seeking help and solutions for
their problems. Many ask for
a mantra, and some for knowledge too. At the end of the
meeting, when it is suggested
that they spend five minutes
chanting the mantra, or ten
or fifteen minutes performing
pj or worship, the seeker
gets restless, and his invariable
response is, There is no time.
When we remember the
Lord daily, and offer our
prayers from the innermost
depths of our hearts, it is ards.
There is no better method of
expressing our love for the
Lord. The real power of prayer
is when it is done with the
right attitude and with the

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right means. Guru Arjan Dev

shows us how.

Note the use of the pronoun in

the familiar sense t, rather
than the formal and respectful
tsi or p. It is the common
usage in the bhakti tradition and
the sf tradition. It expresses
familiarity and closeness with
the loved one.

tU Qak tum pig Ardais,

jI% ip<fu su terI rais.
tum mat ipta hm bairk tere,
tumrI ipa mih sUo anere.
kae# n janE tumra A<tu,
^ce te ^ca gv<t.
sgl smI tumrE sUi xarI,
tum te hae# su AaigAakarI.
tumrI git imit tum hI janI,
nank das sda krbanI.

T hkuru: It is a straightforward statement of fact.

You are the Lord, the
Master. Everything else flows
from that fact. It is only the
Master who is in a position to
grant, therefore, tum peh
arads we address our
prayer, our request, our
supplication, to Him.

t hkuru tuma pagi aradsi,

ju piu sabhu ter rsi.
tuma mta pit hama brika tere,
tumar krip mahi skha ghanere.
koi na jnai tumar antu,
ce te c bhagavanta.
sagala samagr tumarai stri dhr,
tuma te hoi su gikr.
tumar gati miti tuma h jn,
nnaka dsa sad kurabn.
(Sukhamani Sahib,
Astapadi, 4.8.4)

Ju piu sabhu ter rsi: The

spark of life (ju) and the body
(piu) constituted of the
five elements, are both
mysteries for which you alone
are responsible. They are both
His play, His sport, His
creation.

Let us look at the ards line

by line for its simple meaning.

Tapovan Prasad

Tuma mta pit hama brika

tere: You are the mother and

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Nnaka dsa sad kurabn:

Nanak is your slave unconditionally and offers himself ever
in your service. You are his
Master, his Lord.
It should be noted that in
the Gurbn the compositions of
the Gurus follow the style set
by the first Guru, Guru Nanak
Devji, who spoke of himself in
the third person. We know that
the Sukhmani Sahib was composed by Guru Arjan Dev, yet
the last line is Nnaka dsa
This could be interpreted as
Guru Arjan Dev, paying
homage to Guru Nanak Devji
himself as the first Guru. Or,
more likely, it indicates a complete lack of ego or separateness from the lineage, and the
homage is to the tradition of
the Guru, the Guru-parampar,
through which the disciple acknowledges his indebtedness
to his Guru and to the source
of all wisdom. That source is
none other than the Master (T
hkuru) acknowledged in the
first line.
A disciple is one who has
merged himself with the Guru.
He acknowledges he is nothing and the Guru is all. It is in
that state of surrender that it
is possible to receive the grace
and wisdom of the Guru.

the father, and we are your

children (brika). God is the
very source of our being.
Tumar krip mahi skha
ghanere: Your grace, wisdom
and compassion (krip) encompasses great (ghanere) comfort,
pleasure
and
happiness
(skha).
Koi na jnai tumar antu:
You are the Infinite. No one
knows your totality. Antu
literally means end or boundary, or limit, but in this context it means totality.
ce te c bhagavanta: Higher
than the highest, greater than
the greatest, the ultimate, is
personalised here as Bhagavan.
Sagala samagr tumarai stri
dhr: All of Creation (sagala
samagr) is held together by
you, just as a string (stra)
holds together the pearls
strung on it.
Tuma te hoi su gikr: Everything has come from you
(tuma te hoi). Therefore everything is subservient to you and
functions in accordance with
the laws you yourself have
established. gikr literally
means obedience.
Tumar gati miti tuma h jn:
Those laws (gati miti - state,
conditions) are known and
understood by you alone.

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