Waheguru

The word

Waheguru combines an exclamation of wonder with the word Guru. It is usually rendered as an expression of awe at the divine teacher — wondrous Guru — and functions less as a description than as an exclamation, which is consistent with a tradition that holds the divine to exceed description.

The term appears only rarely in the Guru Granth Sahib itself, chiefly in the compositions of the bhatts, court poets whose panegyrics close the scripture. Its establishment as the standard name came through Sikh practice and through Bhai Gurdas, who expounds it at length in the vars.

In practice

Waheguru is the word used in simran, the repetition by which the divine name is held in mind, whether spoken aloud, sung, or repeated silently with the breath. It is used in greeting, in the Sikh salutation Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh, and as an exclamation in ordinary speech.

The Gurus taught that the name is not a formula with automatic effect but a discipline of attention: repetition without the mind engaged is described in the scripture as worthless. What the practice is for is the displacement of self-centred thought by remembrance, which the tradition treats as the whole of religious life rather than a preliminary to it.