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Summary of Question:	Don't Understand
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Tuesday, 5/22/2001 2:24 PM MDT

sat sri acal

i don't know gurmukhi well so have started reading a japji translation in english that someone gave me kindly. however i do not understand what some of it means and was hoping that you could help me to.

what are "the chosen five" and the "mythical bull (compassion's son)"? What does it mean that "there are countless worlds above and below".

could you please also explain what the section that begins "where is the door, what sort of house... God maintains creation" mean, i mean is this a 'real place' or state or a kind of poetic expression? also the "realm of divine knowledge".

my version also has a part that says "karma preordains our birth, but salvation comes through Grace" and i find the karma part confusing as it sounds like the cast system which i know is impossible as it plays no part in sikhism.

The japji has affected me greatly but my bad understanding troubles me. I do hope to learn guru mukhi so i can read Guru Ji's ACTUAL words one day, oh God what an honour that would be.

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REPLY
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Greetings and blessings to you. Japji Sahib is the "seed" of the entire Guru Granth Sahib. So understanding it will give you complete understanding of the Guru. I suggest that you try reading a better English translation of Japji. I have attached one to this reply. Click on it to download it to your computer. You will need the free Adobe Acrobat Reader to read and print it since it is an Acrobat PDF file. If you don't have Acrobat, you can download it here -> http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html Read it out loud before sunrise and listen to the sound of your own voice. Understanding will come to you naturally.



I do encourage you to learn to read Gurmukhi. It is very easy since it is completely phonetic. Much easier to learn than English. Once you can read Guru's bani in Gurmukhi, you might want to try reading the Japji in English on some days and in Gurmukhi on other days - letting your brain put the two together so that understanding of the meaning of the Gurmukhi text comes naturally.

All love and blessings to you in the name of the Guru the Light of every Sikh.

.....G