Episode
Guru Nanak Didn’t Come to Create “Just Another Religion” | Satpal Singh
- Podcast
- Basics of Sikhi Podcast
- Published
- Sep 18, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 8795
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Summary
Eight years to translate Japji Sahib into English poetry. Bhai Satpal Singh explains why it took that long. Bhai Satpal Singh, founder of Nanak Naam, joins Basics of Sikhi TV for a two and a half hour conversation about Gurbani, meditation and the project he could not put down: a poetic Japji Sahib English translation, set to music and structured as the question and answer that Guru Nanak Dev Ji's Bani has always been. He explains why the existing English translations of Japji Sahib never carried the depth he found in the classical commentary, why earlier versions of his own were scrapped, and why a poet friend told him rhyming Bani in english simply could not be done. He is honest that every translation is a compromise, and about answering the people who asked whether any of it was approved. The conversation goes well past the project. Bhai Satpal Singh describes sitting in meditation and letting go of one layer at a time: the day's noise, buried thoughts, attachment to his wife and children, then the fear underneath that, until there was nothing left to release. And something was still there. That "I am" that will not leave is haumai, the one obstacle Gurbani names again and again. As he puts it, you cannot pull the weeds out of a garden you have never once walked into. He also makes an interesting argument: that Guru Nanak Dev Ji was not starting the fifth largest religion, but offering a wisdom that sits above all of them. Keep your religion, he says, and let Gurmat elevate it. Also in this episode: religious guilt and burnout in parchaar, why he treats this work as a nine to five, why his children stay off the Nanak Naam channel, the half hour of Hukamnama the family does before the school bus, why he refuses to make content on parenting, and the six months betwee…