Summary of 'Japuji - Translation and Transliteration' By Surinderjit Singh & Dr Balkar Singh 

The Sikh Gurus, right from Guru Nanak to Guru Gobind Singh, chose the medium of poetry to convey their message. For any transmission of thought, religious or philo­sophic, enriched with devotional overtones, the fittest medium is verse. As rhythm transcends the barriers of words and the world of spiritlies far beyond the realm of words, a literal translation from word to word loses most of the features and flavour of the original, reducing an image into a shadow.

The Sikh Gurus had a grand vision of the Cosmic Will. For the benefit of the entire mankind they tried to bring it nearer to us. They used the wings of poesy and rapturous sounds to transcend the limitations of words. In this poetic rendering the author Professor Surinderjit Singh Gill has tried to catch the glimmer and glow of the glory that is in the original.

Japuji, besides being a superb philosopho religious treatise, is the finest fruit of Guru Nanak's poetic temperament. It is unique in its rhythmical beauty. What further adds to its beauty is the fact that it is couched in the simplest of words. Such profound thought had never been conveyed in so few and such common words and given such a poetic form which is simple but beautiful, rhythmical but varying in rhythm and rhyme-schemes, musical yet rhetorical in essence, impassioned yet reasoned in content, simple yet profound, questions yet answers, eloquent yet agrumentative, so straight ­looking yet over-flowing with allusions, suggestive yet imperceptibly assertive.

The transliteration of Japuji has been done by Dr Balkar Singh, Head of the Depart­ment of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Studies. He also prepared the press copy. In my view, this book is a unique gift to the English-knowing readers as it gives a feel of the original flavour of Japuji.[