jaap sahib
jaap sahib
if japji sahib is the awakening — pure, luminous, the soul recognizing itself in the infinite — then jaap sahib is what comes next.
it is the warrior walking out into the world.
“jaap sahib gives you the strength of the mind behind every muscle of yours. and if you want to change, you have to take the name of god everywhere, with every breath. it should be in you and you should recite it, and you should be with it, and you should become it. and that is the way to be spiritual.” — yogi bhajan
jaap sahib was composed by guru gobind singh — the tenth sikh guru — at anandpur sahib around 1677. he was approximately eleven years old. it opens the siri dasam granth sahib, just as japji opens the siri guru granth sahib. recited together in the ambrosial hours, they form one of the most powerful sound current combinations in the entire tradition. two legs to walk on. two wings to fly.
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bhakti and shakti
the sikh lineage moves, across two centuries and ten gurus, from the pure bhakti — devotion and surrender — of guru nanak, to the shakti — power, courage, and warrior spirit — of guru gobind singh. japji and jaap sahib embody this arc completely.
japji overwhelms the mind with infinitude. it describes the endless, uncountable, incomprehensible vastness of the divine — and the mind surrenders in awe.
jaap sahib uses a different strategy entirely. it describes the divine through negation — undying, no-form, without name, beyond elements, invincible. you cannot categorize what has no category. the mind tries to grasp and finds nothing to hold. it surrenders through exhaustion rather than wonder. both arrive at the same place — but through entirely different doors.
“jaap sahib is not just to praise god. i have experienced and i believe that these things are there to make us highly sensitive, absolutely creative and extremely intuitive.” — yogi bhajan
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the sound technology
guru gobind singh was a master linguist. jaap sahib is composed in six languages — braj bhasha, persian, arabic, urdu, prakrit, and sanskrit — all transliterated into the gurmukhi script. this was deliberate. each language carries different phonetic structures, different elementary energies, different resonances in the brain and body. the range of sounds available across six languages is vastly greater than any single tongue can produce.
the result is a composition of extraordinary phonetic sophistication. the sound-scape is engineered — in the same way a raga is engineered — to produce specific states of consciousness through the vibration of specific sounds in the nervous system.
and it is fast. guru gobind singh’s jaap sahib is meant to be recited swiftly, like a dancing warrior, like galloping horses. the rhythm is the point. different sections — called chands — each carry their own pace and flavor:
bhujang prayaad: swiftly moving cobra
chaachree: lightning
charpat: strike
these are not titles chosen for poetry. they are instructions. the rhythm of war dance, the clashing of swords, the movement of a cobra — these rhythms move through the nervous system and activate something that slower, more contemplative recitation cannot reach.
“this summer i want to show you how in very old times, in a state of ecstasy, people used to worship god through yogic exercise. that is how i learned jaap sahib, by exercising with it. do it with devotion. sing it! copy it! become sharp.” — yogi bhajan
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namo namo namo namo
jaap sahib is a salutation to god in which guru gobind singh recites every facet of the divine. every possible name, attribute, and negation of attribute. in the jaap, the sikhs of guru gobind singh took every aspect of god and bowed and bowed and bowed. they brought god and his aspect to the whole thing — namo, namo, namo, namo.
you are an idiot. you are most intelligent. you are sickness. you are health. this is not paradox for its own sake. it is the teaching that god is in all of it — the idiot and the master, the sickness and the health, the warrior and the saint. when you feel god everywhere, then you become fearless. when you become fearless, you have no vengeance. when you have no vengeance, you don’t play games. and then you stop wasting your life on nonsense.
“when guru gobind singh recited jaap sahib, he knew it already, he didn’t have a problem. he did it for all, he gave us jaap sahib. when your grace, your power, your position is in danger — that is what this bani was given to you for. whosoever recites this bani shall never fall flat on his face.” — yogi bhajan
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the power of ek achree chand
yogi bhajan specifically highlighted one section of jaap sahib — the ek achree chand, sometimes called ajai alai — as one of the most powerful passages in the entire composition.
if you can mentally remember and verbally recite ek achree chand, it doesn’t matter what your karmas are, it doesn’t matter who you are. if you can remember it and recite it eleven times, there is nothing as a woman you need as a grace which shall not be bestowed upon you by the hand of god. no human being can give you anything anyway.
this is the promise of the bani. not earned through years of perfect behavior. available through the sound current, to anyone who will recite it.
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chattr chakkr vartee
the closing lines of jaap sahib — chattr chakkr vartee — are among the most beloved in the entire kundalini yoga tradition. yogi bhajan used them extensively during kriyas and meditations. they are chanted for the removal of fear, for victory, for the experience of the infinite in the body.
chattr chakkr vartee, chattr chakkr bhugatay
suyambhav subhang sarab daa sarab jugatay
dukaalan prantay, diaalang saroopay
sadaa ang sangay, abhangang bibhootay
you are pervading in all the four directions at all times. you are self-illumined and united with all. destroyer of bad times, embodiment of mercy — you are always with us. you are the everlasting giver of indestructible power.
chanted during yoga, during meditation, during anything that requires you to move through fear — these lines carry the energy of guru gobind singh himself. the warrior-saint. the one who faced impossible odds and did not break.
“recite jaap sahib with every breath. let the word of god be on your tongue always. when you do things and the word of god is with you, when you live like this, then on your tongue the word of god makes you god.” — yogi bhajan
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japji and jaap together
in the amrit ceremony — the sikh baptism — jaap sahib is recited as the second of the five banis, directly after japji. the two are always paired. japji is recited over the amrit, then jaap sahib, building the sacred water with the vibratory force of both compositions.
they represent the complete human being: bhakti and shakti, devotion and power, lunar and solar, the soft and the fierce. guru nanak and guru gobind singh. a journey from the awakening of humility and wonder to the full flowering of the warrior-saint who is afraid of nothing and subject to no one.
shaheed baba deep singh — one of the greatest sikh martyrs — recited both japji and jaap 108 times every day. one understanding of this is that he recited them so often, with such intensity, that they became anahad ajapa in his being — every cell of his body vibrating both compositions continuously and automatically. he became the naad of japji and jaap in their complete purity and power.
that is the destination. it begins with picking up the bani and reciting it, imperfectly, for the first time.
“always remember the most powerful, effective way is to copy jaap sahib, because you are not copying the words, you are copying the creative essence of the word, the naad. there is no other way that you can learn about sensitivity.” — yogi bhajan
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japji maps the cosmos. jaap sahib moves through it fearlessly.
learn it. recite it. become it. ❤️🔥