Rehras

Rehras (Punjabi: ਰਹਰਾਸਿ), commonly known as Rehras Sahib or Sodar Rehras, is the daily evening prayer of the Sikhs and is part of Nitnem. It includes hymns from Guru Granth Sahib and Dasam Granth.

It contains hymns of So Dar, So Purakh, Chopai, Anand Sahib and Mundavani, among which Chopai is from Dasam Granth. This Bani is a collection of hymns of five Sikh Gurus: Guru Nanak Dev, Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjan Dev and Guru Gobind Singh.

See also

References

Japji Sahib

Japji Sahib is a Sikh prayer, that appears at the beginning of the holy scripture of the Sikhs, the Guru Granth Sahib. It was composed by Guru Nanak Dev, the founder of Sikhism. It is headed by Mool Mantra and followed by 38 paudis (stanzas) and completed with a final Salok at the end of this composition.

Japji Sahib is believed to be the first composition of Guru Nanak, and considered in Sikhism as the faith's most comprehensive essence. It is regarded amongst the most important Bani or 'set of verses' by the Sikhs, as it is first Bani in Nitnem. It is notable for its discourse on what is true worship and the nature of God. It states that God is indescribable, the only true form of worship is acceptance of God, and to remain one with loving God, always.

Related to Japji Sahib is Jaapu (Punjabi: :ਜਾਪੁ), the latter is found at the start of Dasam Granth and was composed by Guru Gobind Singh.

Japji is used in the Sikh tradition at the initiation ceremony and during the cremation ritual.

Guru Gobind Singh

Guru Gobind Singh (Punjabi: ਗੁਰੂ ਗੋਬਿੰਦ ਸਿੰਘ  pronunciation  (22 December 1666 – 7 October 1708), revered as The Tenth Nanak, Sarbans Dani ("The merciful donor, who sacrificed his all"), Mard Agamra ("A Man without any parallels") and Shah-e-Shahenshah ("The Emperor of Emperors") was the Tenth Guru (Prophet-Master) of Sikhism.

Guru Gobind Singh was born in the year 1666 as Gobind Rai, to the ninth Guru of Sikhism, Guru Teg Bahadur, and Mata Gujri, at Patna Sahib. He ascended to become the Tenth Sikh Guru at the young age of nine, following the martyrdom of his father and Ninth Guru, Guru Tegh Bahadur, who been approached by Hindu Brahmins from Kashmir to seek his intercession against the religious fanaticism of the Mughal empire's General Iftikar Khan. At the innocent behest of the nine year old Gobind Rai (who had remarked that "None could be worthier than you, father, to make a supreme sacrifice"), Guru Tegh Bahadur had courted death and was publicly executed at the imperial capital Delhi in the year 1675.

Guru

Guru (Sanskrit: गुरु. IAST: guru) is a Sanskrit term that connotes someone who is a "teacher, guide or master" of certain knowledge. In pan-Indian traditions, guru is someone more than a teacher, traditionally a reverential figure to the student, with the guru serving as a "counselor, who helps mold values, shares experiential knowledge as much as literal knowledge, an exemplar in life, an inspirational source and who helps in the spiritual evolution of a student." The term also refers to someone who primarily is one's spiritual guide, who helps one to discover the same potentialities that the guru has already realized.

The oldest references to the concept of guru are found in the earliest Vedic texts of Hinduism. The guru, and gurukul – a school run by guru, were an established tradition in India by the 1st millennium BCE, and these helped compose and transmit the various Vedas, the Upanishads, texts of various schools of Hindu philosophy, and post-Vedic Shastras ranging from spiritual knowledge to various arts. By about mid 1st millennium CE, archaeological and epigraphical evidence suggest numerous larger institutions of gurus existed in India, some near Hindu temples, where guru-shishya tradition helped preserve, create and transmit various fields of knowledge. These gurus led broad ranges of studies including Hindu scriptures, Buddhist texts, grammar, philosophy, martial arts, music and painting.

Harbans Singh

Harbans Singh (March 6, 1921 – May 30, 1998) was an educationist, administrator, scholar, the editor of the Encyclopedia of Sikhism. He was respected for his contributions to Sikh scholarship and Punjabi literary studies ; he had a vital and pervasive influence in the field of religious studies, with special reference to Sikhism.

Biography

Singh was born on 6 March 1921 in the village of Kotha Guru in the Bathinda district of the Punjab. His mother, Roop Kaur, belonging to the Sodhi family traced her ancestry to the Hari Singh Nalwa clan. Nikky guninder kaur singh is his daughter who is professor at colby college in maine, USA. She deeply influenced his religious sensibilities. He received his schooling at Khalsa Secondary School at Muktsar. Thereafter, much to the disappointment of his parents, he refused to attend Medical School, and joined the Khalsa College in Amritsar, where he became President of the Khalsa College Students Association, Editor of the Darbar, and President of the Khalsa College Hockey Club. He received both his undergraduate and graduate degrees from this premier Sikh institute. The College authorities were so familiar with his academic potential that they offered him his first academic position even before his exam results were out. Harbans Singh started his career as a lecturer of English at the Khalsa College in Amritsar in 1943.