Mul Mantar
The Mūl Mantar (, ) is the opening verse 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, thus constituting a succinct doctrinal statement of Sikhism. It 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 verse 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). Etymology A mantar means "formula, succinct doctrinal or sacred words with spiritual meaning". The word mūl means "root, main or "fundamental." The Mūl Mantar is thus "root formula", or the root statement of Sikhism. Text The Mūl Mantar is: The extended version with the Jap verse is: Grammar The archaic language of the Guru Granth Sahib is highly inflected; the suffixed short vowels parenthesized above indicate various declensions. In the Mūl Mantar, the suffixed -u indicates nouns and adjectives in the masculine singular direct case, though some words ending with -ā (like karatā) can also indicate this case. This suffix can also indicate an imperative when attached to a verb, as in japu. The suffixed -a can indicate the masculine vocative case, as in Nānaka, the masculine singular oblique case in compounds as in gura prasādi, and a feminine singular direct adjective as in akala, as well as the masculine plural direct case and the feminine singular direct case. The suffixed -i can indicate the possessive case in compounds (as in sati nāmu), and the locative (as in ādi and jugādi) or instrumental case as in gura prāsadi; these terms would be ādu, jugādu, and prasādu if taking the direct case. It is also another feminine singular direct case (as in mūrati); -a and -i are among the predominant declensions for this case. Adjectives and modifiers also agree in number and gender with their dependent element, hence ikku oaṅkāru, akāla mūrati, and the term mūlu mantaru itself. Most of these cases still exist in the modern language in slightly different forms; features in the archaic language like the masculine