Japji Sahib: A Puratan Teeka with Sant Waryam Singh Ji

A ਟੀਕਾ (teeka) is a traditional commentary that walks through bani and opens its meaning line by line. The puratan, or old, style of teeka grew out of the oral teaching tradition, where a teacher would recite a line and then explain its words and message so that ordinary listeners could follow. Sant Waryam Singh Ji of Ratwara Sahib taught in this tradition, and his Japji Sahib Puratan Teeka aims to make the bani clear for everyday readers (Sant Waryam Singh Ji, Japji Sahib Puratan Teeka).

Japji Sahib is the first composition in Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji and appears at Ang 1. Because it opens the Guru Granth Sahib and is recited daily by many Sikhs, it has received careful attention from commentators across centuries. Standard scholarly study often pairs a traditional teeka with reference works such as Sahib Singh's Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan (Sahib Singh, Darpan).

The teeka does not replace the bani; it serves it. Its goal is to point the reader back to the words of Guru Nanak Dev Ji with greater understanding. This course follows that spirit by describing and explaining the teeka rather than reproducing long passages of the bani.

The ਮੂਲ ਮੰਤਰ (Mool Mantar) opens Japji Sahib and, in a sense, the whole of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji at Ang 1. As the teeka presents it, the Mool Mantar is a compact description of the nature of the One Divine: the Divine is one, is the Creator, is without fear and without enmity, is timeless and unborn, and is known through grace (Sant Waryam Singh Ji, Japji Sahib Puratan Teeka).

Sant Waryam Singh Ji's teeka takes each quality in turn and explains its meaning for the seeker. Rather than treating these as abstract terms, the teeka draws out their practical sense: that the Divine is beyond fear and enmity invites the seeker toward the same freedom from fear and hatred.

Commentators broadly agree that the Mool Mantar functions as a thematic seed for the whole bani (Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies).

After the Mool Mantar, Japji Sahib opens with a ਸਲੋਕੁ (sloak) and then begins its sequence of ਪਉੜੀ (pauris). The word pauri means a step, and the teeka treats the pauris as steps that lead the seeker upward in understanding (Sant Waryam Singh Ji, Japji Sahib Puratan Teeka).

The teeka explains that the opening sloak speaks to the truth that endures across time. From there, the early pauris raise a basic question: how does one become true, and how is the wall of falsehood removed? As the teeka presents it, the answer turns the reader away from mere ritual and toward alignment with the Divine Order.

Sant Waryam Singh Ji's exposition keeps the language simple so that a listener can follow the thread from one pauri to the next. The teeka often restates a line in plain Punjabi and then shows how it connects to the line before and after, so the bani reads as a continuous teaching rather than separate verses.

Two ideas run through the teeka's reading of the middle pauris: ਹੁਕਮੁ (Hukam), the Divine Order, and ਸਿਮਰਨ (simran), loving remembrance. The teeka explains that everything in creation comes into being and acts within Hukam, and that the seeker's task is to recognize and accept this Order rather than struggle against it (Sant Waryam Singh Ji, Japji Sahib Puratan Teeka).

The teeka also draws out a recurring caution: outward ritual, by itself, does not purify the heart. As Sahib Singh's Darpan similarly notes in its reading of these pauris, Japji Sahib repeatedly redirects the seeker from external acts to inner remembrance and truthful living (Sahib Singh, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan).

In the teeka's view, Hukam and simran are not separate: remembering the Divine is itself a way of living in harmony with the Order.

The later pauris of Japji Sahib describe a progression of spiritual realms, called ਖੰਡ (khands). The teeka presents these as stages of growth the seeker passes through, each deeper than the last (Sant Waryam Singh Ji, Japji Sahib Puratan Teeka).

As the teeka explains, the journey moves from a realm where one begins to act rightly, through realms of knowledge and effort, toward a realm of grace, and finally to the realm of Truth. The teeka stresses that these are not physical places but inner conditions of the soul.

Scholarly surveys note that this ascent is one of the most studied features of Japji Sahib (Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies).

Japji Sahib ends with a closing ਸਲੋਕੁ (sloak). The teeka explains that this final couplet gathers the message of the whole bani and turns it toward daily life. It speaks of the world as a stage of action and of how one's deeds shape one's path (Sant Waryam Singh Ji, Japji Sahib Puratan Teeka).

For Sant Waryam Singh Ji, the point of studying the teeka is not only to understand the words but to live them. The teeka closes by encouraging the seeker to carry simran and acceptance of Hukam into everyday conduct, so that the reading of Japji Sahib becomes a way of life rather than a single recitation.

This course has described the structure of Japji Sahib as the teeka presents it: the Mool Mantar, the opening sloak, the thirty-eight pauris, and this closing sloak, all found at Ang 1 of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji. For deeper study, readers may pair the teeka with Sahib Singh's Darpan and with academic surveys such as The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies (Sahib Singh, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan; Pashaura Singh and Louis E. Fenech, eds., The Oxford Handbook of Sikh Studies).