Vahiguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vahiguru Ji Ki Fateh
Vahiguru Ji Ka Khalsa Vahiguru Ji Ki Fateh (WKWF also abbreviated WAKAFA) is the current form of Sikh to Sikh salutation, was adopted by the Sikhs at the command of Guru Gobind Singh as part of the manifestation of the Khalsa in 1699.
Why a Two-fold Affirmation
- In the first place, it is an expression of a special relationship between God and those who dedicated their entire life to His service.
- Secondly, it is the expression of the faith in the ultimate triumph of the forces of Goodness which; despite all apparent setbacks, trials and travails; is the just and essential end of the fight between good and evil in the world. This faith has been asserted over and over again by Guru Nanak, his spiritual successors and their devotees (Sikhs).
After being administered amrit (water stirred with a two-edged dagger; sanctified by recitation of the Guru’s word and thus transmuted into the elixir of immortality), each initiate was adjured to raise the affirmation, Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa Vahiguru ji ki Fateh! This was duly repeated, and the tradition continues till this day. Apart from being used as the affirmation of faith, this formula is also the orthodox, approved Sikh form of salutation.
Where does Sat Shri Akaal come in?
Sat Sri Akaal means roughly, "He/She is Blessed Who says God is Truth". In the Punjab one greets another according to the religion of the one being greeted. Sat Sri Akaal or Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa Vahiguru ji ki Fateh is used among Sikhs. Hindus are greeted with Namaste or Namaskar and Muslims with Assalamu Alaikum or Adaab. If one does not know the religion or language of the person they are greeting neutral greetings are recommended.
Sat means truth. Shri/Sri denotes respect, if one shifts switches r and i you get Sir. Akal/ Akaal (the second A signifies a long A) means A= not / kal= to die, together it means the that which never dies or 'God'.
- Why Fold your Hands
- One presses his/her hands together, originally a hollow was kept between palms, near their heart and bows gently in greeting. The prayerful hand position is a Mudra called Anjali, from the root Anj, "to adorn, honor, celebrate or anoint." The hands held in union signify oneness the bringing together of spirit and matter, or the self meeting the Self. It has been said that the right hand represents the higher nature or that which is divine in us, while the left hand represents the lower, worldly nature.
Earlier Salutations Among the Sikhs
The salutation used by the Sikhs of Guru Nanak's time was 'Sat Kartar' (Hail the Creator, the Eternal). This is how he, according to the Puratan Janam Sakhi, his oldest biography, greeted those he met.
Some accounts of his life, such as that by Hariji, mention other similar forms of greeting, one among those being 'Raja Ram Sati' (Hail the Holy Creator!) In the hukamnamas or letters sent to sangats by the Gurus prior to Guru Gobind Singh’s time, the opening greeting used to be: Guru Sati (Hail the Eternal Lord!) which is only an inverted form of Satiguru. Other forms of salutation such as Ram Sati (Hail God the Eternal!) and respectful salutations like Pairin-Pauna (I fall at thy feet) were also current among the Sikhs in general. Namaskar (I bow to thee) was in use in greeting the holy, or offering worship to God. Such greetings are specifically mentioned or hinted at in the older writings.
Naming the Undefinable
With the development of the Sikh creed in the time of Guru Nanak’s successors and the propagation of a new tradition basing itself on a monotheism whose roots, however, were Indian, as against the prevalent polytheism, pantheism and, at the higher levels, henotheism*, a new terminology came into existence which distinguished the Sikh faith from the numerous creeds prevalent at the time. Names like Ik Onkar, Oankar, Parabrahm* were favoured above others for the Godhead: Hari, Narayana and Rama acquired greater currency compared to other names drawn from mythology. But the particular names of God which constituted a kind of differentia of Sikh society were Nirankar (Formless), Kartar (Creator), Sachcha Patshah (True or Eternal King), Satguru and Vahiguru.
Guru is Lord, Master, and Vahiguru is expressive of wonder or ecstasy at Divine infinitude or glory, with the implied sense of name. Vahiguru has become the most characteristic name for God in the Sikh creed, like Allah in Islam. It occurs in the Guru Granth Sahib (Savaiyyas, Mahala IV by Bhatt Gayand, page 1402) repeated ecstatically as a mantra. In the compositions of Guru Arjan (GG, 376), it is used in the inverted form as Gur Vahu. Bhai Gurdas in his Varan has used it as being synonymous with the Absolute, the Creator in a number of places (I. 49, IV. 17, VI. 5, IX. 13, XI. 3 & 8, XII. 17, XIII. 2, XXIV. 1. XL. 22). This prolific use by one whose philosophical exposition of Sikh metaphysics and mysticism is the earliest on record, indicates that by the time of Guru Arjan (the Savaiyyas referred to above were also composed by poets (Bhatts) attending on him). Vahiguru as the Sikh name for God was well established and had acquired the overtones which have since been associated with it as expression of the Sikh monotheistic affirmation of faith.
Because of this close and inalienable association, Guru Gobind Singh at the time of introducing the new form of initiation to the faith, with adjuration to the initiates to maintain a stern moral discipline and to cultivate qualities of crusaders and martyrs for the faith, administered the new faith in terms of the name of God which was held in the highest reverence in the tradition handed down to him. The new form of salutation, which annulled all the previous ones till then prevalent in Sikh society, was and currently is Vahiguru ji ka Khalsa Vahiguru ji ki Fateh — the Khalsa is the Lord’s own: to the Lord is the Victory.
Why Khalsa and Fateh, Two Terms derived from Arabic
Two terms in this formula need elucidation.
- Khalsa is an Arabic word, meaning, literally, ‘pure’ and used in the administration terminology of the Muslim State system in India for the lands or fiefs directly held by the sovereign and not farmed out to landlords on certain conditions of military service and of making over to the State a share of the produce. In the term khalsa, both these meanings are discerned. In one of Guru Hargobind’s Hukamnamas and in one of Guru Tegh Bahadur’s khalsa is used for the Guru’s devotees, with the implication particularly as ‘the Guru’s Own!’ As Guru Gobind Singh adopted the term and gave it centrality in the enunciation of the creed, the idea of purity perhaps came to acquire primacy. When Guru Gobind Singh sent a set of youths to Varanasi to study Sanskrit, they were given the appellation Nirmala which is the Sanskrit - based parallel to the Arabic khalsa. Nirmalas are now a Sikh sect, who have maintained traditions of high scholarship. Khalsa occurs also in the Guru Granth Sahib (GG, 654) where it is used in the sense of pure’, ‘emancipated.’ This term appealed to Guru Gobind Singh as being truly expressive of the vision of a noble, heroic race of men that he was creating.
- Fateh, fatah in Arabic, literally means opening or forcing the portal of a besieged fort, implying victory. It has been used in the Qur'an in the sense of victory, and one of the attributive names of God in the Muslim tradition is Fattah (lit. Opener, i.e. Vanquisher over all evil forces). While jai, jaikar have been used in the Sikh tradition for victory and are used thus even in the Dasam Granth, jai was dropped from the new Sikh tradition, though for shouts of victory the term jaikara has become firmly established. Fateh was adopted as the current popular term for triumph or victory and made part of the Sikh affirmation and salutation.
Fateh as fatih occurs once in the Guru Granth Sahib “phahe kate mite gavan fatih bhai mani jit—the noose of Yama hath been cleft, transmigration hath ceased and, with the conquest of the self, true victory hath been achieved” (GG, 258). The implied meaning here is of a moral victory. Jit, a word from Indian tradition, like jaikara has got established also in Sikh tradition, and in the invocation Panth ki Jit (Victory of the Panth) is repeated in the Sikh collective prayer daily. Fateh nonetheless remains the prime Sikh term for victory, and has been repeated again and again in Sikh history, down from the Persian couplet put on Sikh coins (Deg-o-Tegh-o-Fateh-e-nusrat bedarang, yaft az Nanak Guru Gobind Singh) to the common daily parlance of the Sikh people, wherein every success is designated as fateh.
Footnotes:
- Henotheism (Greek εἷς θεός heis theos "one god") is a term coined by Max Müller, to mean devotion to a single "God" while accepting the existence of other gods. Sikhs believe in One Creator God, As Guru Nanak said to the Muslim in Makkah, who took offense to the Guru sleeping with his feet turned toward the Ka'aba their house/home of God, kindly point my feet in the direction that is not God's house/home.
- Parabrahm (Sanskrit.) A Vedantic term meaning "beyond Brahma." The Supreme and the absolute Principle, impersonal and nameless.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1. Sikh Rahit Maryada. Amritsar, n. d.
2. Padam, Piara Singh, ed., Rahitname. Amritsar, 1989
3. Ashok, Shamsher Singh, Guru Khalsa de Nisan te Hukamname. Amritsar, 1967
4. Randhir Singh, ed., Prem Sumarag Granth. Jalandhar, 1965
Above adapted from article by G. S. Talib of Global Sikh Studies
