Sajan Aiso Sant Sahaee | Raag Gujri | Fall Student Recital | AACM | 2026

ਸਾਜਨ ਐਸੋ ਸੰਤੁ ਸਹਾਈ ॥ Sajan Aiso Sant Sahaee — a shabad by Sri Guru Arjan Dev Ji in Raag Gujri (Ang 499, Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji), sung by Nimaani Singh with her brother Guransh Singh on tabla, at the Student Recital Series of the Ali Akbar College of Music, San Rafael, California, on Sunday, September 20, 2026. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE OCCASION The Ali Akbar College of Music holds a Student Recital Series in which students of Indian classical music present what they have been working on before the College's faculty and community. This recital was held in the presence of Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri, the College's Director of Percussion — a rare opportunity for every student on the program. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE SHABAD ਗੂਜਰੀ ਮਹਲਾ ੫ ॥ ਆਲ ਜਾਲ ਭ੍ਰਮ ਮੋਹ ਤਜਾਵੈ ਪ੍ਰਭ ਸੇਤੀ ਰੰਗੁ ਲਾਈ ॥ ਮਨ ਕਉ ਇਹ ਉਪਦੇਸੁ ਦ੍ਰਿੜਾਵੈ ਸਹਜਿ ਸਹਜਿ ਗੁਣ ਗਾਈ ॥੧॥ ਸਾਜਨ ਐਸੋ ਸੰਤੁ ਸਹਾਈ ॥ ਜਿਸੁ ਭੇਟੇ ਤੂਟਹਿ ਮਾਇਆ ਬੰਧ ਬਿਸਰਿ ਨ ਕਬਹੂੰ ਜਾਈ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥ ਕਰਤ ਕਰਤ ਅਨਿਕ ਬਹੁ ਭਾਤੀ ਨੀਕੀ ਇਹ ਠਹਰਾਈ ॥ ਮਿਲਿ ਸਾਧੂ ਹਰਿ ਜਸੁ ਗਾਵੈ ਨਾਨਕ ਭਵਜਲੁ ਪਾਰਿ ਪਰਾਈ ॥੨॥੮॥੧੭॥ Guru Arjan Dev Ji describes the true saint as a friend and helper: one who frees us from worldly entanglements, doubt and attachment, turns our love toward the Divine, and steadies the mind in a single teaching — to sing the Divine's praises in sehaj, in calm and poise. The rahao, the line the shabad keeps returning to, says that on meeting such a one the bonds of maya break and the Divine is never forgotten. Guru Ji closes by saying that after trying many different ways, this is the one he found best: to join the company of the holy, sing the Lord's praise, and so cross the world-ocean. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ RAAG GUJRI Raag Gujri is the fifth raag of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji (Ang 489–526). It is traditionally a late-morning raag, and in the Hindustani tradition it is closely associated with Gujari Todi. Fittingly, this shabad was sung late in the morning. The musical composition of this shabad is by Nimaani's kirtan teacher, Gurpreet Singh Ji. Taal: Teen Taal ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ THE ALI AKBAR COLLEGE OF MUSIC Founded in 1967 by the legendary sarode maestro Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, the Ali Akbar College of Music has been located in San Rafael, California since 1968. Its mission is to teach, perform, and preserve the classical music of North India, particularly the Baba Allauddin Khan Seni gharana. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ IN GRATITUDE In Nimaani's words, from the stage: "Sat Sri Akal and good morning, everyone. My name is Nimaani Singh, and I am very grateful to be here. Thank you, Manik ji, for this opportunity, and Mary Khan ji, for your encouragement. Before I begin, I seek the blessings of Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri ji and all the teachers here. I also seek the blessings of my vocal teacher, Rita Sahai ji. Today's shabad is 'Sajan Aiso Sant Sahaee,' written by Guru Arjan Dev Ji in Raag Gujri. The musical composition is by my kirtan teacher, Gurpreet Singh ji. And thank you to my brother, Guransh, for playing tabla with me." Nimaani's teachers: Smt. Rita Sahai Ji (vocal) — a senior disciple of Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who conferred on her the title Gayan Alankar.    / rita sahai - topic   Gurpreet Singh Ji (kirtan), who composed this shabad —    / @gurpreetsingh-qh1nc   On tabla is Nimaani's brother, Guransh Singh, a student of Pandit Swapan Chaudhuri at the College. He also presented a tabla solo at this recital. Sincere thanks to Manik Khan ji, Mary Khan ji, and the faculty, staff and students of the Ali Akbar College of Music for their warmth and encouragement. ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ #Kirtan #RaagGujri #GurmatSangeet #Gurbani #Shabad #AliAkbarCollegeOfMusic #AACM #SikhYouth #GuruArjanDevJi