Living in Truth - An Exploration of Guru Nanak’s Mool Mantar and Japji Sahib (Pauri 1)

Based on Maskeen Ji’s Discourse on Japji Sahib

Introduction: The Eternal Question of Truth

Every spiritual tradition begins with a fundamental question: What is Truth? For some, truth is an intellectual pursuit; for others, a mystical experience; for still others, a moral or ethical discipline. Guru Nanak Dev Ji (1469–1539), the founder of Sikhism, addressed this universal question in his opening composition, the Japji Sahib.

The very first utterances from Guru Nanak’s lips were not philosophical abstractions but a direct proclamation of Divine Reality. This declaration, known as the Mūl Mantra, is followed by the early pauris (verses) of Japji Sahib, where Nanak dismantles common misconceptions about spirituality and points towards the only path to Truth—living in harmony with the Divine Will (Hukam).

This article explores the Mūl Mantra and Pauris 1, drawing upon the insights of Sant Singh Ji Maskeen, a 20th-century Sikh scholar and orator, whose katha (discourse) brings clarity, depth, and vivid metaphors to Nanak’s timeless words.

The Mūl Mantra: Guru Nanak’s First Proclamation

Īk oṅkār sat nām kartā purakh nirabhau nirvair akāl mūrat ajūnī saibhaṅ gur prasād.

There is One Universal Creator. His Name is Truth. He is the Creator, without fear, without enmity. He is timeless, beyond birth, self-existent, realized by the Guru’s Grace.

This opening verse is more than a statement of faith; it is the very foundation upon which Sikh philosophy rests. It proclaims the Oneness of the Divine amidst the apparent multiplicity of creation.

Īk oṅkār: The One amidst Many

Maskeen Ji explains that the very first letter, Ik (One), is not simply a number. In mathematics, “1” is a digit, but in Guru Nanak’s vision it is a Brahm Vaak—a Divine utterance descended directly from God.

Human life is lived in fragments. Division and multiplicity are everywhere—by race, language, gender, wealth, and status. This fragmentation is the source of human suffering. Nanak’s first word is the solution: return to the One.

Without union with the One, man remains divided, restless, broken. With union, all fragmentation dissolves into wholeness. As Maskeen Ji says, “To be divided is man’s misfortune; to be united is his true fortune.”

Unity and Diversity: Waves and Ocean

To explain this, Maskeen Ji employs beautiful metaphors:

• The ocean is one, but its waves are many.
• The sun is one, but its rays are countless.
• The Formless is one, but its manifestations are infinite.

Multiplicity is fleeting, like waves that rise and fall. The One is eternal, like the ocean beneath the waves. To remain attached to multiplicity is to live in constant conflict and comparison; to unite with the One is to find peace and joy.

Creation, Sustenance, and Destruction: Not Three, but One

Human imagination once separated the processes of existence into three deities: Brahma the creator, Vishnu the preserver, and Shiva the destroyer. Each was revered as a separate god, with temples, rituals, and myths.

But Guru Nanak revealed that this division is false. In truth, all three functions arise from the same Source. Creation, sustenance, and dissolution all emerge from the One Divine. To accept three separate gods is still to remain in duality.

As Maskeen Ji notes, these three forces also exist within us:

• Rajo guna (creative energy) drives innovation and building.

• Sato guna (sustaining energy) fosters care, responsibility, and preservation.

• Tamo guna (dissolving energy) allows us to end what is harmful, to destroy our vices.

Thus, the One pervades not only the cosmos but also the inner human psyche.

Omkar in Tradition, and Nanak’s Revolution

The word Omkar existed in India long before Guru Nanak. Ancient sages explained it as a combination of three sounds: A (akar, creation), U (ukar, preservation), and M (makar, dissolution). References to Omkar are found in Vedic, Buddhist, and Jain texts. Even today, the temple of Omkareshwar on the Narmada river stands as a testimony to the antiquity of this concept.

But Guru Nanak did something radical: he joined the numeral Ik (One) with Omkar. Thus was born Ik Onkaar.

By doing so, Nanak proclaimed that creation, preservation, and destruction are not separate powers—they all arise from the One Eternal Being. This was a decisive move away from multiplicity towards pure monotheism.

Satnam: The True Name

The Mool Mantar continues: Satnam — His Name is Truth.

What is a “name”? Names identify existence. Every tree, flower, animal, or planet has been given a name, for without names, recognition is impossible. Humanity gave God countless names based on His qualities: Ram, Rahim, Allah, Waheguru. These are descriptive names, reflecting God’s attributes.

But Nanak goes further: beyond all descriptive names is the primal Name—Satnam. God is Truth itself, and therefore His Name is Truth.

As Guru Arjan Dev Ji explained:

Kirtam naam kathe tere jeeba, Satnam tera para poorbala — “Countless are Your descriptive names, O Lord, but Your primal, eternal Name is Satnam.”

Thus, God is beyond limitation by any single name. Yet every name that invokes Him carries power. As Guru Nanak said: Balahare jaau jete tere naam hai — I am a sacrifice to all Your Names.

From Mool Mantar to Japji Sahib’s First Pauri

After the Mool Mantar comes the opening pauri (stanza) of Japji Sahib, where Guru Nanak confronts the most pressing spiritual question:

kiv saciārā hoīai kiv kūṛai ṭuṭai pāl ||
How can one become truthful? How can the wall of falsehood be broken?

This question is universal. Every human soul longs for Truth. But between man and God stands a wall. That wall is falsehood—illusion, ego, and attachment.

Guru Nanak explores the methods humanity has devised to break this wall and exposes their limitations.

Part 2: The Futility of False Methods

1. Ritual Bathing

soce soc na hovai je socī lakh vār ||
By bathing, purity is not obtained, even if one bathes hundreds of thousands of times.

In India, pilgrimage to sacred rivers was believed to cleanse sin. Nanak rejects this. The body may become clean, but the mind remains stained. Kabir mocked: if bathing alone liberated, frogs—living always in water—would be saints.

True purification comes not from external washing but from inner cleansing through remembrance of the Divine.

2. Silence and Asceticism

cupai cup na hovai je lāi rahā liv tār ||
By silence, one does not attain silence of the mind.

Ascetics believed renouncing speech would bring peace. But Nanak says the mind keeps chattering even if the tongue is silent. Trees, stones, and plants are all silent—yet they are not liberated.

Silence has value only when speech is disciplined, aligned with compassion and Truth.

3. Fulfilling Desires

bhukhiā bhukh na utrī je bannā purīā bhār ||
The hunger of desire is never satisfied, even by piling up loads of goods.

Some sects argued that indulging every desire would eventually exhaust them, leading to detachment. Nanak rejects this illusion. Desires are endless; the more you feed them, the more they grow. Hunger for food and thirst for water can be quenched, but the hunger for wealth and beauty never ends.

4. Knowledge and Cleverness

sahas siāṇpā lakh hohi ta ik na calai nāl
Even with thousands of clever ideas, not one goes with the soul in the end.

Philosophers claimed knowledge would liberate. But Nanak insists: information is not transformation. A man may memorize scriptures yet remain greedy, arrogant, and corrupt.

Maskeen Ji observes: the modern world is full of universities, but also full of restlessness, crime, and selfishness. Knowledge without humility becomes ego; learning without compassion becomes poison.

True knowledge is that which blossoms into seva (service), daya (compassion), and nimrata (humility).

The Answer: Living in Hukam

So, how is the wall of falsehood broken?

kiv saciārā hoīai kiv kūṛai ṭuṭai pāl || hukam rajāī calaṇā nānak likhiā nāl ||1||.
How do we live Truthfully? By walking in harmony with Hukam—the Divine Will—as written within us.

This is the heart of Sikh spirituality. To live in Hukam is to live in acceptance, to see life as flowing through Divine Law, to surrender ego and merge into the current of Truth.

When we overeat, we fall sick—it is Hukam. When we misuse speech, we create suffering—it is Hukam. When we align with natural law, peace and health follow—it is Hukam.

Thus, Nanak presents not ritual, not renunciation, not indulgence, not scholarship—but surrender to Hukam as the only true path to God.

Conclusion: From Falsehood to Truth

Guru Nanak’s opening words form a complete philosophy:

• Ik Oṅkār: God is One, the source of all.
• Sat Nām: His Name, His Being, is Truth.
• Kartā Purakh: He creates, sustains, and dissolves.
• Nirbhau Nirvair: Beyond fear, beyond enmity.
• Akāl Mūrat: He is not a person but Eternal Presence.
• Ajūnī Saibhaṅ: Beyond birth and death, self existent.
• Ād sach, jugād sach, hai bhī sach, Nanak hosī bhī sach: God was, is, and always shall be True.
• False paths fail: Ritual purity, silence, indulgence, and intellectual pride cannot break the wall of falsehood.
• The true path: Walk in Hukam, in alignment with Divine Will.

As Maskeen Ji reminds us, the human longing for Truth is universal, but so too is the trap of falsehood. Guru Nanak did not merely critique; he offered the solution—live in Hukam.

To become sachiyārā—truthful, authentic, aligned with Reality—is not the achievement of rituals or cleverness, but the fruit of surrender, grace, and living in harmony with the Divine Order.

This is the beginning of Japji Sahib, and indeed, the beginning of the Sikh spiritual journey.