Japji

What is Japji? It is approximately 20 minutes long, can be quite challenging to follow, and the translation does not help to alleviate this feeling that you are entering into another religious dogma. After all, it comes straight from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, which physically looks like a large version of the Christian Bible.

Is this a necessary component of the Aquarian Sadhana?? After all, it's about using what works for me.
Right?
We have now entered the heart-centered Age of Aquarius, where the energy of the Feminine re-emerges. This translation feels a bit...archaic? After all, I am a woman, and a man subscribed it. I can definitely blow this one off.


In fact, the Siri Guru Granth Sahib opens with Japji, and it (Japji) was first manifested in song by Guru Nanak, the first of the Sikh Gurus. The Granth Sahib is more like a hymnal, or a collection of Shabads (hymns) from various saints, not all of them Sikhs. These Shabads are like love songs to God & Truth; singing of its Divinity, Greatness, Infinite-ness, and what it means when we connect as part of this Divine Intelligence.
Japji sings of our inability to give it Justice with words. No worldly attainment even gets close to its contentment. It is the love song of all love songs. One that can truly be understood once Sustained Transcendence & Bliss is attained. Until then, it's shortcoming lies in the capacity for language to describe something that can not be put into words, relying, then on pure Faith. Spoken, of course, in the Sacred Language of Gurmukhi, no shortcoming.
When the 7th chakra is opened, the feeling of Oneness with the Universe creates this incredible experience of every thing and every Being on this planet being one big love of your life. This feeling experienced at the heart center is quite orgasmic. Yes. It comes from the Siri Guru Granth Sahib, a book, the 11th, and eternal living Guru of the Sikhs, but it transcends religion.
If trust takes effort, it is difficult to accept the translations of Japji. It is because we take the words quite literally and from the context of the past. We are still living in that struggle with our first unsettling, and for some of us, horrific, relationship we had with the religion we were exposed to from childhood, be it Christianity, Catholicism, Judaism, Materialism, Capitalism and so on. Or perhaps we have a solid relationship with our religion of choice and we feel disloyal.
Whether or not Japji ultimately resonates with you, once your relationship with all paths as truly ONE and the same is healed & sealed, and particularly if it is met with that Lover's Essence, it can no longer bother. It is understood.
And once it is spoken, whether or not the meaning is understood is irrelevant. The power of Naad (Sound) that it offers (and oh! what a gift it is) brings you to a whole new level of consciousness. Japji.