page_title: Mul Mantar
hierarchical_section_title: Mul Mantar
caption_attribution_description: English: Mool Mantar (mul mantra) are the opening twelve words of the Sikhism scripture shown above. It is in Gurmukhi. The image above is from the 17th-century Kartarpur manuscript, believed by Sikhs to be Guru Arjan Dev handwriting, who gave the Mul Mantar the final form. An alternative theory states that it was dictated by Guru Arjan and written down by his scribe. It is the oldest surviving dated version of Mul Mantar. (To verify this, see Eleanor Nesbitt, Sikhism: A Very Short Introduction, Oxford University Press, pages 36–37) This is a photograph of a 17th-century manuscript and therefore qualifies for 2D-Art licensing guidelines of wikimedia commons. Any rights I have as a photographer, I herewith donate to wikimedia commons under CC4.0 license.
context_page_description: Mūl Mantar are the opening words of the Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. It consists of twelve words in the Punjabi language, written in Gurmukhi script, and are the most widely known among the Sikhs. They summarize the essential teaching of Guru Nanak. The Mul Mantar is a succinct doctrinal statement of Sikhism.
  The Mul Mantar has been variously translated, with the interpretation of the first two words particularly contested. These are rendered as "There is one god", "One reality is", "This being is one" and others. Sometimes the disagreements include capitalizing g in god, or r in reality, which affects the implied meaning in English. Some consider it monotheistic, others monist. The general view favors the monotheistic interpretation, but not the Semitic understanding of monotheism. It is rather "Guru Nanak's mystical awareness of the one that is expressed through the many." The remaining ten words after the first two are literally translated as true name, the creator, without fear, without hate, timeless in form, beyond birth, self-existent, the grace of Guru.
  The Mul Mantar is repeated in the Sikh scripture before numerous Shabad, or hymns.
context_section_description: Mūl Mantar (Punjabi: ਮੂਲ ਮੰਤਰ, IPA: [muːlᵊ mən̪t̪əɾᵊ]) are the opening words of the Sikh scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib. It consists of twelve words in the Punjabi language, written in Gurmukhi script, and are the most widely known among the Sikhs. They summarize the essential teaching of Guru Nanak. The Mul Mantar is a succinct doctrinal statement of Sikhism.
  The Mul Mantar has been variously translated, with the interpretation of the first two words particularly contested. These are rendered as "There is one god", "One reality is", "This being is one" and others. Sometimes the disagreements include capitalizing g in god, or r in reality, which affects the implied meaning in English. Some consider it monotheistic, others monist. The general view favors the monotheistic interpretation, but not the Semitic understanding of monotheism. It is rather "Guru Nanak's mystical awareness of the one that is expressed through the many." The remaining ten words after the first two are literally translated as true name, the creator, without fear, without hate, timeless in form, beyond birth, self-existent, (known by) the grace of Guru.
  The Mul Mantar is repeated in the Sikh scripture before numerous Shabad, or hymns. It existed in many versions in the 16th-century before it was given its final form by Guru Arjan in the 17th century. The essential elements of the Mantar are found in Guru Nanak's compositions, the various epithets he used for Akal Purakh (Ultimate Reality).
caption: Mul Mantar in Guru Arjan's handwriting, 17th century Kartarpur manuscript.
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