The Ardaas that we do daily in the presence of Guru Granth Sahib Ji, at the beginning and end of every work of life. But the prayer that is done today, when it was not even a vocabulary of prayer, then the prayer was still there. In reality, there is no need of words to pray. In an ancient source, a very lovely thing has been written about prayer that a Sikh who started going to the battlefield, when he was riding a horse, had only saying that ‘Kalgiyan walya meri Rakhya kari’ means oh lord (refers to Guru Gobind Singh ji) protect me, that was the prayer for him. Behind the prayer is the feeling and not the words.
There should be no sense of pride in prayer. Sikh prayer is very unique. Among its forms are religion, philosophy and society. In Guru Granth Sahib, the word Ardaas comes in many forms. Where did the word prayer come from?
Islam people consider it popular and Sanskrit people also consider it popular. It is surprising that some words from the original Semitic and Sanskrit languages have the same pronunciation and letters, but their meanings differ. For example, the word Amar in Guru Granth Sahib,
“ਸਚਾ ਤੇਰਾ ਅਮਰੁ ਸਚਾ ਦੀਬਾਣੁ ।।”
If the word ‘Amar’ comes into Persian, it means the abiding one, commandment. It means that your commands are true and your court is also true. Here this word is coming from Persian.
ਪੀ ਅੰਮ੍ਰਿਤ ਆਘਾਨਿਆ ਗੁਰਿ ਅਮਰੁ ਕਰਾਇਆ ।।
Here this word is coming from Sanskrit and here Amar means deathless. One source of Persian is ‘Tuzk-e-Jahangiri‘. In it, the command to martyr Guru Arjan Dev ji was given by Jahangir. Jahangir begins with ‘Amar Kardam’, I commanded. Similarly, there are many other words.
But the word Ardaas is such that if it comes from Sanskrit, then its root word will be arj+dasht (ਅਰਜ+ਦਾਸ਼ਤ) meaning to request, to express one’s story in the form of a request. If the same word comes from Persian, then its root word will be arddh+aas (ਅਰਦਧ+ਆਸ), arddh means heart and aas is the desire means the desire of the heart. It is a word that has almost the same meaning in both its original languages as a wish or a prayer from the heart.