Sarbat da bhala, "the welfare of all", is the phrase that closes the Ardas, the formal Sikh congregational prayer recited daily in gurdwaras and at the conclusion of ceremonies. Its final words ask for the Name, for a rising spirit, and, by God's will, for the good of everyone: Nanak naam chardi kala, tere bhane sarbat da bhala.
The phrase expresses a universalism that runs through Sikh scripture rather than sitting on top of it. The Guru Granth Sahib repeatedly denies that God belongs to any one community; Guru Nanak's declaration that there is neither Hindu nor Muslim is its most quoted statement, and the scripture's own composition makes the same point structurally, since it includes the compositions of Hindu and Muslim saints of widely varied caste background, Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas, Farid, alongside those of the Gurus. The daily prayer therefore does not ask for the welfare of Sikhs. It asks for the welfare of everyone, and Sikh writers regularly identify this as the tradition's defining ethical posture.
Its expressions are institutional and concrete. Langar, the free communal meal served in every gurdwara to anyone who comes, regardless of religion, caste, gender or status, and eaten sitting together on the floor, was instituted by the Gurus precisely as an enacted refusal of caste separation. Seva, voluntary service, is treated as a religious obligation rather than a charitable option. And the tradition of Sikh humanitarian relief has in recent decades organised large-scale food and disaster operations internationally, from Punjab to refugee camps in Europe and the Middle East.
The martyrdom of Guru Tegh Bahadur, executed at Delhi in 1675 after intervening on behalf of Kashmiri Hindu Pandits facing forced conversion, is understood within the tradition as the paradigm case: a Sikh Guru dying for the religious freedom of people who were not Sikhs. The concept is also mobilised in modern Sikh social and political argument, invoked both by those emphasising service to the wider world and by those emphasising an obligation to resist oppression wherever it is found, the connection to miri-piri and to the ideal of the sant-sipahi being drawn explicitly.