Practices
Naam Simran
Meditative Practices
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Origin 1499 to 1539
The remembrance of the divine Name, and the central Sikh spiritual practice. Simran is remembrance in the sense of keeping something continuously in mind rather than recalling it after forgetting.
It takes several forms and the tradition does not rank them sharply. It can be the repetition of Waheguru aloud; repetition under the breath; repetition silently, timed to the breath; or the singing of scripture in company, which is kirtan and is also simran. Sikh teaching also uses the word for a disposition rather than an exercise, living with the Name in mind while working, which is the form most Sikhs practise most of the time.
What distinguishes it from the meditative practices it is often compared to is what it is not asked to do. It is not a technique for altering consciousness, and Sikh writing is wary of treating unusual states as achievements. It has no required posture, no breath control, no visualisation, no sequence of stages to be climbed, and no teacher whose transmission is necessary. Its purpose is the dissolution of haumai, the self-regard that binds action, and its measure is whether a person's conduct and orientation change, which is a test conducted outside the practice rather than within it.
It is also insistently ordinary. It requires no place, no season, no cleanliness rules and no withdrawal, and can be done while working, which is the point in a tradition that rejects renunciation and holds up the householder.
Facts
Status
Status Within the TraditionNaam Simran carries no doctrinal requirement of an altered state of consciousness; Sikh teaching is explicit that its measure is external, whether a person's conduct and orientation actually change, a test conducted outside the practice rather than validated by any experience within it. 1 Current StatusContinues today as a core daily discipline for practicing Sikhs, taught from childhood and central to Sikh devotional life. 1 Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 2 Sourced to the subject's own accountCited to the central living scripture underlying the daily practice. Practice
Category of PracticeNaam Simran has no required posture, no breath control, no visualisation, no sequence of stages to be climbed, and no teacher whose transmission is necessary. 1 Who Performs ItAll adherents of the tradition 1 FrequencyContinuous: a standing discipline, not an event 1 Solitary or CommunalPerformed alone or together 1 Attributions
TraditionSourced to the subject's own account Origins
Origin Period Place of OriginThe central Sikh spiritual practice taught from the tradition's founding by Guru Nanak. Meaning
Literal MeaningNaam simran means remembrance of the Name: naam, the divine Name, and simran, keeping something continuously in mind rather than recalling it after forgetting. 1 Learn More
Remembrance of the Name
Naam Simran is the central devotional discipline of Sikhism: the loving remembrance and repetition of the divine Name, Naam, held to be the means by which the mind is stilled, the ego dissolved and the human being united with the one God. In Sikh teaching the Naam is not merely a word but the reality and presence of God as immanent in creation, and to dwell on it, whether by the repetition of Waheguru, by the recitation of scripture, or by the singing of the Gurus' hymns, is to attune the whole person to that presence. The Guru Granth Sahib returns again and again to the Name as the one thing needful, the treasure beside which all else is loss.
Simran may be practised aloud, murmured, or held silently in the heart, and it may be a set daily discipline or a continuous undercurrent kept through all activity. The ideal the tradition holds out is ajapa jaap, a remembrance so established that it continues of itself with every breath, so that the devotee lives in unbroken awareness of God while fully engaged in the world.
The Householder's Path and Its Social Frame
Naam Simran is inseparable in Sikh teaching from an active life in the world. Guru Nanak rejected withdrawal and renunciation, teaching that God is realised not by the hermit but by the householder who earns an honest living, shares with others, and remembers the Name in the midst of ordinary duties. The classic summary of the Sikh life, Naam japo, kirat karo, vand chhako: remember the Name, work honestly, share what you earn, binds inner remembrance to labour and charity as three sides of one discipline.
Simran is nourished by the wider structures of Sikh devotion: the daily recitation of the prescribed prayers, the nitnem; the congregational singing of scripture, kirtan; and the company of the devout, the sangat, in whose gathering remembrance is strengthened. Distinct from the mantra-repetition of the Indian traditions in its theology of a single formless God and its rejection of ritual for its own sake, naam simran nonetheless shares with them the conviction that the steady turning of the mind to the divine remakes the one who practises it.
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