The word Guru literally means the teacher, the enlightened. However, in Sikhism, this term has a special meaning and significance. According to it “Guru” signifies the Divine Spirit or Light of the Lord of God because it is the Lord God only who can dispel the darkness of ignorance from human minds and reveal the Truth. By His Own Grace, the Lord God manifested His Light in the person of Nanak and that is how Guru Nanak was a born Guru. Having been born as the Enlightened one, Nanak was the perfect channel for the flow of God’s revelation. Thus whatever Nanak spoke was the Word of God as he himself explicitly stated in the Guru Granth:

“O Lalo! As comes the Divine World, so do I preach” “Nanak reveals the True Word.”

In time, Guru Nanak passed on this Light to one of his devoted disciples who then also became the Enlightener, the Guru. This succession continued till ninth successor or the Tenth Nanak, Guru Gobind Singh.

As It is the Divine Light that is the Guru Nanak and his successors brought the Sikhs in direct Communion with the Divine Light through the Divine Word. Thus right from the beginning the Sikhs have been considering only the Divine Light or the Word as the Guru and not the human body which was, of course, sacred because of being the holy channel for the expression of the same. The Divine Light being eternal, the Guru of the Sikhs is also eternal and consequently is often referred to as Satguru the Guru that never dies. The same Light continued to be passed on from the first Guru Nanak to his successor Gurus. Whatever they spoke was thus a direct revelation of God Himself and is referred to as the True Word (Sachi Bani) that is why Guru Gobind Singh bid the Sikhs to accept only the Revelation of the True Guru as the True Guru for ever and ever because “Revelation is the Guru and the Gurus is the Revelation.” The Guru’s revelation or Guru Bani is contained in the Guru Granth or the Holy Book that is the Guru, The Corporate Body of the Sikhs the Sikh Panth is entitled to take decisions in strict accordance with the teachings contained in the Guru Granth.

With this issue World Sikh News introduces a regular column Heritage” which will bring articles on Sikh history, culture and religion by eminent Sikh scholars.

Article extracted from this publication >>  February 17, 1989