Sukhmani Sahib

Sukhmani Sahib occupies pages 262 to 296 of the Guru Granth Sahib, one of the longest single compositions in the scripture, set in Gauri raga by Guru Arjan, the fifth Guru, at the start of the seventeenth century. Its name is usually rendered Jewel of Peace or Psalm of Peace, sukh being peace and mani jewel or mind, and its architecture is exact, twenty four ashtapadis, sections of eight stanzas, each preceded by a salok that announces its theme. The opening couplet sets the whole work's direction, remembering, remembering the Name in remembrance, I find peace, and the first sections unfold the fruits of simran, the remembrance of God's Name, as the cure of suffering and the companion of the soul.

Later sections praise the sant, the holy person in whose company the Name is found, describe the brahmgiani, the knower of God, in verses of mounting wonder, and insist that the Name upholds all creatures and all worlds. The work is contemplative rather than narrative, circling its single theme through every human condition, wealth and poverty, honour and disgrace, sickness and death, always returning to the same medicine. Sikh tradition remembers it as composed at Ramsar in Amritsar, and its poised, unhurried metre has made it the scripture's most sustained meditation on interior peace.

Sukhmani Sahib holds a place in Sikh practice that no other long composition matches. Its complete recitation takes roughly an hour, and great numbers of Sikhs undertake it daily, often in the early morning, as a discipline beyond the obligatory nitnem prayers. It is read at sickbeds and in mourning, recited for thanksgiving and before undertakings, and its promise of peace through remembrance has made it the text Sikh families reach for when life presses hardest. The practice is markedly congregational as well as private. Sukhmani Sahib societies, many of them organized and led by women, gather in gurdwaras and homes for collective recitation, a form of association found across the Sikh world from Punjab to the diaspora, and gurdwaras schedule regular Sukhmani paath in their weekly calendars.

At the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar the composition is part of the daily round of scripture and kirtan, sung in the raga in which the Guru set it. Musicians have recorded it entire, in traditional raga performance and in popular devotional styles, and printed gutkas, small volumes containing the Sukhmani alone, are among the most common Sikh devotional objects, carried in pockets and kept at bedsides. The composition thus functions as scripture, liturgy and personal companion at once, the Guru's meditation on peace worn smooth by four centuries of daily use.