Japji Sahib: A Sikh Journey Through the IFS Lens
Japji Sahib is the sacred morning prayer of Sikhism. a gateway into stillness, devotion, and union with the Eternal One.
In this series, we walk line by line through its 38 sacred pauris (verses), gently reflecting on what each one stirs in us through the lens of Internal Family Systems (IFS). This is not a theological study, it’s a spiritual journey inward. A place where every verse becomes a mirror for the parts inside us that long, protect, wrestle, or worship.
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We do not interpret. We sit beside.
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We do not analyze. We soften into presence.
This is a sacred meeting of East and West. Of scripture and psyche. Of devotion and integration.
Welcome to Japji Sahib: A Sikh Journey Through the IFS Lens.
Let the words meet you — not just in your mind, but in the temple of your heart.
🌸 Japji Sahib — Opening Verse (Mool Mantar)
This is the foundational line. It is the seed of the entire Sikh path. Everything blooms from this.
Original Gurmukhi:
ੴ
ਸਤਿ ਨਾਮੁ
ਕਰਤਾ ਪੁਰਖੁ
ਨਿਰਭਉ
ਨਿਰਵੈਰੁ
ਅਕਾਲ ਮੂਰਤਿ
ਅਜੂਨੀ
ਸੈਭੰ
ਗੁਰ ਪ੍ਰਸਾਦਿ ॥
Transliteration:
Ik Onkar
Sat Naam
Karta Purakh
Nirbhau
Nirvair
Akaal Moorat
Ajooni
Saibhang
Gur Prasad
Plain English Translation:
There is One Creator.
Truth is Its name.
The Doer of everything.
Without fear.
Without hatred.
Timeless, beyond form.
Unborn.
Self-existent.
Realized through the Guru's grace.
🌿 Sacred Reflection (Soft, Devotional Explanation):
This isn’t a list of God's traits.
It’s a womb chant.
A whisper of what Is, before we start naming, needing, separating.
Ik Onkar — There is only One.
Not just one God… but Oneness itself.
No separation. No two. No exile. No other.
You were never outside.
Sat Naam — Truth is the Name.
Not as in “label,” but as in being.
The Truth isn’t something to learn.
It’s something to become.
Karta Purakh — The Creative Force that breathes everything into being.
And breathes with you, now.
Nirbhau, Nirvair — Without fear. Without hate.
Not because God is cold…
but because nothing is separate enough to fear or hate.
This opening verse is like laying your whole system in the lap of the Infinite
and being told gently:
You were never alone.
You are not exiled.
You are made of the same One.
💠 IFS Parts Lens:
What part of you feels most separate?
The one that thinks it’s on the outside…
The one that feels cast out, or not chosen, or unworthy…
Can you let that part hear this chant not as philosophy…
But as a reminder?
It is not the part that must become whole.
It is already of the One.
Ask softly:
Sweetheart… what would it feel like to belong so deeply that you forget fear…
to be so included that hatred dissolves…
to be born not from a wound, but from Oneness?
Let the part breathe here.
Don’t fix it.
Just let the sound of Ik Onkar stay with it like a presence.
