Sardar Pritam Singh Chahil compiled a 20 pound hard bound volume of Shree Guru Granth Sahib Jee with a wans literation in the Roman Script and a translation into English. The volume which verse by verse of the original maintains the integrity of the holy book.
The work began about Seven years ago when Pritam Singh, then 75, visited a Gurdwara in Berkeley. He was saddened to see that the Gurdwara had the holy book in eight volumes, one of which was placed on the pedestal in the palkhi. “] felt that only one eighth of the guru was being worshipped” said Chahil. He felt that if all the 6000 hymns could be put in one volume and the verses transliterated into Roman, the sacred teachings could be available to even more people in the Sikh community.
Along with the son Satjiv he started on his labor of love, He and his wife Chanpe began spending Six months of the year in the US and Six months in their native Patiala, working on the book, In the US Chahil would put in 14 hours daily writing by hand the transliteration and translation and then shipping the handwritten pages off to India, where it would be put on the computer. Throughout his six years endeavor he didn’t even once fill sick, says he. Sardar Pritam Singh Chahil, lawyer by training, holds a law degree from Punjab University he has spent most of his life working as a farmer and writing in his spare time. He got drawn into writing in 1940’s when he met the socially conscious journalist Gurubaksh Singh, after which he says, “I felt I could do more service writing than practicing as a lawyer.”
The printing of the volume is almost complete. In addition to the single volume book, he is also putting a four volume edition of his work, which can be kept in homes and libraries.
Article extracted from this publication >> February 26, 1993
