Prayer in Sikhism

Sikh practice centred on the Guru Granth Sahib.

Sikh prayer is built on remembrance. The tradition, founded by Guru Nanak in Punjab more than five hundred years ago and now the world's fifth largest religion with some 25 million adherents, teaches that one formless God, most often addressed as Waheguru, pervades all of creation. The believer's task is to keep that presence in mind through ordinary life, and the core devotional act is naam simran, the loving remembrance and repetition of the divine Name. Around this center stands a body of scriptural prayer: Sikhs recite and sing the compositions of their Gurus, known as gurbani, and their set prayers are fixed texts rather than improvised petitions, with one great exception, the Ardas, whose middle section is opened to the needs of the moment. Authority in Sikh worship rests with scripture itself. In 1708 the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, ended the line of human Gurus and vested guruship in the Guru Granth Sahib, treated ever since as a living Guru. In the gurdwara it presides from a raised seat beneath a canopy, is ceremonially installed each morning and rested each night, and gives daily counsel through the hukamnama, a passage read aloud wherever the volume falls open. Worship in its presence is mostly sung. Kirtan, the congregational singing of hymns, fills the greater part of a service, followed by the standing Ardas. No priesthood mediates any of this: a granthi reads and cares for the scripture as a profession, but any practicing Sikh, woman or man, may lead. Sikh devotion is a householder's path, not a monastic one. Daily prayer belongs to the home as much as the gurdwara, and it runs directly into service. The langar, a free vegetarian meal cooked by volunteers and served to anyone who comes, is prayer continued as hospitality, and the tradition's characteristic register, a deliberately hopeful spirit Sikhs call chardi kala, holds even at a funeral.

Forms of prayer

The rhythm

Three anchors shape the day: morning banis, ideally in the pre-dawn quiet Sikhs call amrit vela, Rehras Sahib toward sunset, and Kirtan Sohila at bedtime. In the gurdwara, the Guru Granth Sahib is ceremonially installed each morning and rested each night, with kirtan, readings, and Ardas in between. The tradition sets no weekly holy day apart; congregations hold their main gatherings on days the community can attend, which in much of the diaspora means Sunday. Across the year, gurpurabs mark the births and martyrdoms of the Gurus, and Vaisakhi recalls the founding of the Khalsa in 1699; major observances are often anchored by an Akhand Path and processions with singing. How much of the daily cycle an individual keeps varies widely, from the full set of banis to a single prayer or none.

At life’s moments

Awareness-level notes only: what a moment tends to involve here, not what to do at one.

• Health and healing: Families often arrange a reading of Sukhmani Sahib, a composition associated with peace of mind and recovery, or request an Ardas at the gurdwara naming the person who is unwell. Recorded kirtan or gurbani played at home or at a bedside is a common comfort, and congregations routinely include the sick in their petitions.
• Before surgery: Before an operation a family may offer Ardas for a good outcome, and some follow recovery with a reading in thanksgiving. Initiated Sikhs wear the five articles of faith even in hospital, and uncut hair is itself an article of faith, so families and care teams usually discuss accommodations, including any shaving of a surgical site, in advance.
• Serious illness: Sustained scripture is the characteristic response: relatives may organize a paced reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, gather to recite together, or keep gurbani playing near the person. The tradition frames illness within hukam, the divine order, and prizes chardi kala, a deliberately hopeful spirit, without treating sorrow as a failure of faith.
• Dying and the end of life: No last rite requires clergy, and there is no sacrament that must be administered. What matters is presence: family may quietly recite or play gurbani and encourage remembrance of Waheguru, and a granthi or respected community member is sometimes asked to pray with the person. The tone sought is acceptance of God's will.
• Birth and new life: A newborn is welcomed with thanksgiving, commonly at the gurdwara. In the Naam Karan custom the scripture is opened and the first letter of the day's passage suggests the initial of the child's name; boys generally receive Singh as a surname or middle name, girls Kaur. Timing and formality vary from family to family.
• Marriage: The Sikh wedding, Anand Karaj, takes place in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib, usually in a gurdwara. The couple slowly circles the scripture four times as the Lavan, a hymn of four verses, is read and sung, and the ceremony concludes with Ardas and the sharing of karah parshad, a sweet offering.
• Grief and mourning: Mourning is quiet and scriptural rather than ritually elaborate. Many families complete a reading of the Guru Granth Sahib in the days after a death, often a paced Sehaj Path closing with a bhog ceremony and a shared meal, and the congregation's Ardas commends the departed and asks steadiness for the living.
• Funerals and burial: The funeral rite, Antam Sanskar, is brief and composed. Cremation is the norm, with Ardas offered and Kirtan Sohila, the nightly prayer, recited; ashes are later placed in flowing water. Loud lamentation and permanent memorials are discouraged, since the body is regarded as a garment the soul has set aside.
• Peace: Calm is treated as a fruit of remembrance rather than a technique. Naam simran, the quiet repetition of the divine Name, is the everyday practice for a troubled mind, and Sukhmani Sahib, whose title is often rendered as jewel of peace, is the composition most often turned to when steadiness is sought.

For chaplains, nurses and funeral directors

Observance ranges from fully initiated to cultural, so ask rather than assume. Initiated Sikhs wear five articles of faith at all times, including uncut hair (kesh), a steel bracelet (kara), and a small sheathed blade (kirpan); removal for any procedure is sensitive and is normally discussed with the patient or family first. Hair anywhere on the body carries religious weight, so shaving a site warrants an explicit conversation. The turban is not ordinary clothing; it should be handled respectfully, and a patient may need help retying it. Many Sikhs, women especially, prefer same-sex clinicians and modest gowns. Daily prayers follow morning, evening, and bedtime rather than fixed clock times; a short quiet interval usually suffices. Families of the seriously ill commonly recite or play scripture at the bedside; the local gurdwara can send a granthi, though no rite requires clergy. After a death, families often wish to wash and dress the body themselves, keep the five articles in place, and move promptly toward cremation. Gurdwara food is vegetarian; individual diets vary. Positions on questions such as organ donation are individual or familial rather than set by a universal rule.

Common misreadings

Variation within the tradition

Most Sikhs share one scripture, one pattern of congregational worship, and one official code of conduct, yet observance spans a wide range. Initiated (amritdhari) Sikhs keep the five articles of faith and the full daily discipline; many uninitiated Sikhs keep uncut hair and the outward form, while others, sometimes called sahajdhari, follow the Gurus' teachings without keeping uncut hair. Groups such as the Akhand Kirtani Jatha and Damdami Taksal recite longer morning sets than the official minimum, so even the length of Nitnem varies. Namdhari Sikhs, a smaller community dating to 1857, follow their own continuing line of human gurus, which the mainstream rejects because guruship passed to the scripture in 1708. Western converts linked to the 3HO movement join Sikh practice with yoga. The centrality of the Guru Granth Sahib, kirtan, Ardas, and langar is safe to assume nearly everywhere; an individual's level of practice is not.

Terms worth knowing

• Waheguru: The most common Sikh name for God, often rendered as wondrous enlightener. Its repetition and remembrance form the heart of Sikh devotional practice.
• Gurbani: The utterances of the Gurus: the hymns and compositions preserved in Sikh scripture, recited and sung as the substance of Sikh prayer.
• Nitnem: The set of daily prayers recited by observant Sikhs in the morning, at sunset, and before sleep, often read from a small prayer book called a gutka.
• Ardas: The standing communal petition offered at the close of Sikh services and ceremonies, with a fixed frame and a flexible middle naming the occasion.
• Hukamnama: The passage received when the Guru Granth Sahib is opened and read from the page where it falls open, taken as guidance for the day or the occasion.
• Langar: The free vegetarian meal cooked by volunteers and served in every gurdwara to anyone who comes, with all diners seated together as equals.
• Granthi: A trained reader and caretaker of the Guru Granth Sahib who conducts services. Not an ordained priest; Sikhism has no clergy caste.

Frequently asked questions

Sources

The claims on this page rest on the following. Where practice varies, the variation is stated rather than resolved.

• Sikh Rehat Maryada (Sikh Code of Conduct and Conventions), English edition, Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (1945). The official code, drafted 1932 to 1936 and approved in 1945; prescribes the daily banis and the conduct of Ardas, and codifies the naming, marriage, and funeral ceremonies described on this page.
• Gurdwara, Sikh Coalition. Vouches for gurdwara worship and visitor etiquette, scripture at the center of the space, singing as the main mode of service, langar open to all, and the absence of ordained clergy; the companion About Sikhs page vouches for Sikhism as an independent tradition of more than 25 million.
• Guru Granth Sahib, Wikipedia. Vouches for the 1708 conferral of guruship by Guru Gobind Singh, the daily installation (prakash) and rest (sukhasan) ceremonies, the honors of canopy, raised seat, and whisk, and the daily passage taken as guidance.
• Nitnem, Wikipedia. Vouches for the named daily banis and their times, the code-of-conduct minimum, recitation from a gutka, amrit vela, and variation among groups such as Damdami Taksal and the Akhand Kirtani Jatha that add banis.
• Antam Sanskar, Wikipedia. Vouches for funeral practice: Ardas and Kirtan Sohila at the rite, cremation with ashes placed in flowing water, the five articles remaining on an initiated Sikh's body, the Sehaj Path and bhog afterward, and norms of composure without monuments.
• Langar (Sikhism), Wikipedia. Vouches for the free lacto-vegetarian meal open to all regardless of religion, caste, gender, or status, floor seating as a sign of equality, volunteer service, and origins with the early Gurus.
• Anand Karaj, Wikipedia. Vouches for the wedding rite held in the presence of the Guru Granth Sahib and the four Lavan verses read and sung as the couple circles the scripture; corroborated by the Sikh Research Institute's State of the Panth report on Anand Karaj.
• Sukhmani Sahib: Psalm of peace, SikhNet. Vouches for Sukhmani Sahib as Guru Arjan's composition on peace of mind, its association with comfort in suffering, and remembrance of the Name as the practice it teaches.
• Akhand Path, Wikipedia. Vouches for the unbroken relay reading of the entire Guru Granth Sahib over about forty-eight hours and the range of occasions, from births and weddings to deaths and anniversaries, for which families arrange one.
• Health Care Providers' Handbook on Sikh Patients, release announcement, Montgomery County, Maryland government. Vouches for clinical awareness points: respectful handling of the five articles of faith in examinations and emergencies, modesty and same-sex clinician preferences, and end-of-life accommodation of prayer, devotional music, family presence, and post-mortem practices; the handbook is adapted from a Queensland Health publication.