Many of the great teachers the world has known have not left a line of their composition and we only know what they taught through tradition or second-hand information… But the compositions of the Sikh Gurus are preserved and we know, at first hand what they taught. The Sikh Religion differs as regards the authenticity of its dogmas from most other theological systems.

He has, therefore, affixed no tune or raga to it, as he has done in the case of all other poems of his. This beautiful poem of Guru Nanak is not a hymn to be sung in accompaniment with a musical instrument.

Just as the Gita contains the kernel of the Hindu religious philosophy and the New Testament the fundamental tenets of Christianity, similarly ‘the essence of the Sikh religious philosophy is enshrined in the Japji’. In sacred literature, the Japji may be aptly compared with ‘the Gita and the New Testament. It is Guru Nanak’s most remarkable contribution that begins with Mool Mantra Ik Oankar Satnam… It is one of the products of those minds who have tasted God-consciousness and whose words beckon generation after generation of men to prepare themselves for the descent of the Divine into their lives. This long hymn is the epitome of Sikh religious philosophy and the rest of the Holy Book is an exposition of the thought contained in the Japji. Guru Granth Sahib, the Sikh Scripture, begins with the Japji.