Nitnem by Dr. Kulwant Singh, with Punjabi ... - Gurbanifiles.org

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INTRODUCTION
NIT-NEM
DAILY PRAYER
Punjabi in Gurmukhi & English Transliteration
GENERAL
NIT-NEM: “Daily Discipline.” It is a collection of the selected portions of the Sikh Scriptures
for their routine recitation every morning, evening, and night. This book is a transliteration of
the Nit-Nem – Daily Prayer, currently prescribed by the Khalsa Panth (The Sikh people). Some
extra Banis – Scriptures, have also been added.
KEY-BOARDED SCRIPTURES: The scripture text has been copied from the Gurbani-CD.
The making & duplication of the Gurbani-CD is controlled by Dr. Kulbir Singh Thind, MD;
3724 Hacienda Street, San Mateo, California 94403, USA.
ROMAN: Phonetic representation of Gurbani into a text using English alphabet is a very
difficult task. Many of the commonly accepted English equivalents of the Gurmukhi script used
here have evolved in the time and have been used by other authors as well, but a good number
of them have gradually been further modified or developed. No matter how it is done, the
romananization can at the most achieve an approximation to the original. However, it is hoped
that readers will find the romananization in this document a helpful phonetic approximation as
a substitute for the Gurmukhi script. The English language uses spellings that are contextsensitive,
but such a methodology cannot be used with advantage for romanization of Gurbani.
The methods adopted here are totally devoid of context. The upper case (capital) letters have
only been used to make a distinction between different phonetic syllables, except in the words
that directly refer to God. (Dr. Kulbir S. Thind, MD)
SCRIPTURES
Seven Gurus composed the Banis - Hymns. Out of the ten Gurus, Guru Granth Sahib (the Holy
Book) contains the Banis (Scriptures, Hymns) of the six Gurus – first 5: Guru Nanak Dev,
Guru Angad Dev, Guru Amar Das, Guru Ram Das, Guru Arjun Dev, and the 9 th Guru Tegh
Bahadur. Bani of the Tenth Guru Gobind Singh, is in his Dassam-Granth (Book of the 10 th
Master). Coincidentally, the three Gurus who did not compose Banis, had their names starting
with Har-e - Guru
Har-e Gobind, Guru Har-e Rai, and Guru Har-e Kishan. Nit-Nem is the collection of selected
Scriptures for daily recitation as a routine. The standard Nit-Nem set by the Panth – the Sikh
world, has the Banis of five Gurus - First, Third, Fourth, Fifth and the last i.e. the Tenth Guru
Gobind Singh.
Nit-Nem includes the Bani of the Gurus only, and not of Bhagats (saints), Bhatts and
others. In Nit-Nem, there is no Bani of 2nd Guru Angad Dev, and 9 th Guru Tegh Bahadur (6 th ,
7 th , and 8 th Guru did not write Gurbani).
If we think the Nit-Nem has Bani only by the Gurus to maintain its special status, all the
Banis in the Guru Granth Sahib though authored by anyone, and that of Guru Gobind Singh,
are equally honorable. If we presume that the Banis not composed by the Gurus are not there in
the Nit-Nem for a special distinction, it will be a far fetched idea. Every Bani, authored by
anyone, became Gurbani when it got entered into the Holy Book.