SAT - Noun or Adjective ?

Sat Naam Sada Sat Naam

Dandauth bandhana ji


Someone having a go at Baba Ji from the Gurdwara stage yesterday, he was saying that youngsters are getting mislead into reciting Sat Naam.
He said if we understood basic grammar we would know that "SAT" is an adjective and NAAM is a noun. Hence, Sat means the Naam is true.
Then he added and that Naam is of course Waheguru.

I went home and with Guru ji's kirpa opened up an enlgish book on grammar and it opened at the page about nouns and adjectives! This is what I understood.

In gurbani the word SAT can be both adjective and a noun (read C.S Shackle from University of SOAS in the text Sacred Language of The Sikhs, and also "Glossary of Guru NAnak" by the same author"). When it is an adjective it means true, when it is a noun it means TRUTH.

He gives the example in the book eg NIRMAL NAAM literally translates as pure-name. If NIRMAL is used as an adjective then it is saying that God's name is pure - meaning that God's Name has the quality of being PURE. However, if NIRMAL is used as a noun, then it is saying that God's name is the "PURE ONE".

So I can reasonably apply the same logic to SAT. "The Glossary of Guru Nanak" says SAT (with sihari, or even without) can be an adjective or a noun. Hence, SAT NAAM when translated as an adjective is saying God's Name has the quality of being true, being real, it exists, or as a noun it is is saying "Gods Name is "TRUTH" i.e. the TRUE ONE."


dust of your feet

Harjit