“The power of release of mankind, possessed by the Guru was in the Word and in Holy congregation and not in the person the Guru.”
Bhai Gurdas
By Sardar Jagat Singh Sangha
Guru Arjan Dev Ji, the fifth Nanak of the Sikhs, was a saint, a philosopher, a born poet and a scholar of rare peity and literary attainments. To prepare the Sikh community for what was coming, he was assisted by his trusted lieutenant Bhai Gurdas, worked for many years and collected the hymns and compositions of Guru Nanak and his predecessors, selected the sacred songs of 15 Hindu and Muslim reformers namely: Jaidev, Namdev, Trilochan, Permanand, Sadhna, Beni, Ramanand, Dhanna, Pipa, Sain, Revdas, Surdas, Sheikh Farid, Bhikham and Kabir (the last 3 were Muslim saints), contributed his own hymns and finally compiled in the year 1604 the scripture called Sri Guru Granth Sahib that was to become the Guru in the form of the word. By producing such an authentic piece of literature, Guru Ji demonstrated that the holy beings of whatever caste or creed are equally worthy of respect and reverence. It is the Word of those emancipated and God illumined perfect souls that had known and realized God and the true religion.
The Guru Granth Sahib consists of poems totaling 29,480 rhymes, verses and nearly half the composition consists of Guru Arjan Devji’s own hymns. Later on the hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur ji, the 10th Nanak, were also added. The present text contains 1430 printed pages and nearly a million words.
This great Holy Scripture possesses such a wonderful influence in men that it has infused and stimulated life in many people and will continue to do so for all times to come. It is capable of guiding in every human situation in the complex battle of life. It is not a mere sermon but the life breath of divine souls and has the power to infuse true living in all who sincerely seek it. It is really an ocean of nectar to the depths of which one must dive and rest in peace. It is really such a great storehouse of wisdom and divine knowledge within the reach of everybody, that enables a full and true life to flower. It has the potency to lift man from the depth of ignorance to illumination, leading to the achievement of the highest stage of manhood. Truly it is by no means the Sikh Bible, but it is the Universal Bible of man to give him joy, to vitalise his spirit and to elevate him so that the fires of desires and passions are extinguished resulting in peace to the troubled soul. One may call ita charmed song capable of transporting man to unknown spiritual heights. It has guided the path of life of very many people in the past and will continue to do so in future too. In Guru Granth Sahib lies hidden the seed of world’s unity, as also its salvation. Itis the only ‘Divine Compilation’ which gives ‘one a complete information about that very possession, the Nam, which is the key to the Kingdom of Heaven. The Holy Sikh scripture is thus the greatest fountain of the spiritual knowledge,
Of all the world religions, Sikhism alone can, with the fullest justification, claim to possess the gospels of its founders in their original purity. Truths revealed to Prophets and seers have often been mixed up, in course of time with spurious and imperfect additions thought the ignorance, prejudices or ill-conceived zeal of their followers and lost their purity, Nearly all the religious books suffer from interpolations and many anachronism.
However, the sagacity and the forethought of the Sikh Gurus envisaged the possibility of such situations in Respect of their own scriptures and they took steps to ensure against this eventuality. Guru Arjan Dev Ji compiled the soul stirring poetry of the Holy Granth, embodying the Sikh teachings under his personal supervision, each hymn bearing the name of the writer as well as the tune that sets it to music, and created for all times the imperishable and yet the visible embodiment of the Gurus as also of their wisdom. He has thus placed all mankind under a permanent debt of gratitude by bequeathing to it the highest moral and spiritual truths in the purest forms as were revealed to the Gurus. These were clothed in the dialects and languages of the people of the land of his birth and were thus made accessible to every person without any distinction of caste, color, race OF Sex.
Hence Guru Granth Sahib is unique because it is the authentic record of the Guru’s word and is free from late interpolations, Not a word has been changed since its preparation and its original copy is still available.
It is this Holy Granth which was installed formally as the Guru in 1708 by Guru Gobind Singh ji with the declaration:
“Accept the Holy Granth as Guru which is the visible personification of the Gurus. Whoever wants to meet God, may find Him through its Word.”
But even before the regular installation took place, Guru Arjan Dev Ji and the succeeding Gurus never seated themselves on a footing of equality with the Holy Granth. They wanted to give higher position to the Word of the Guru than to the Guru’s person. It is recorded in Sikh History that once when Gum Har Rai, seventh Nanak was lying on his couch, he heard Sikhs singing hymns from Guru Granth Sahib and the reverence for the Holy word was so powerful an emotion with him that he immediately rose in such a hurry to pay his respects to it, that he injured himself in the process of rising. Once when Guru Gobind Singh Ji saluted the shrine of a Faqir named Dadu by lifting his arrow in the form of a salutation, the Sikhs by his side censured him for having violated his own instructions.
“The Muslim cemeteries and the Hindu cremation grounds were not to be worshiped even by mistake.”
Although the Guru had done it only to test the Sikhs steadfastness and devotion to the Guru’s Word, he admitted that he had rendered himself liable to punishment and it is said that he actually deposited Rupees One hundred and twenty five by way of fine.
Ram Rai, the eldest son of Guru Har Rai Ji., was Pronounced guilty for having altered a word in the Guru’s hymns just to please Emperor Aurangzeb and was punished for this offense. Guru Har Rai declared that he would never see him for the whole of his life.
Guru Arjan preferred a martyrs death to saving his life through making alternations in the Guru’s hymns as required by the Emperor Jahangir. How could the Voice of god be altered simply to please the whims of an unscrupulous and cruel monarch? Such instances show the direction in which the Guru Gobind Singh’s mind was working even before the formal installation had taken place. He was quite clear that it was not possible to maintain for long the institution of Guruship in the human form, which was maintained for ten generations with the greatest difficulty and that also because the first place was always given to the Guru, Every time the succession to Guruship took place it was clear to all that it was the spiritual succession that was going on preceded. by spiritual transformation taking place each time. The spirit of Guru Nanak, his soul and his Word had become incarnate in Bhai Lehna, transforming him into Guru Angad Dev, the second Nanak.
“The mode of life of Angad and his light were the same as those of Guru Nanak. The master had merely changed his body.
— Var in Ramkali by Satta Balwand.
All the ten Gurus were thus one in spirit revealed in the Word.
The loss of the Person of the Guru which was the source of personal guidance and inspiration found its compensation the installation of Holy Granth as the Guru. If we are unable to meet Guru Nanak on the physical plane, we can do it any time on the spiritual plane. He is now embodied in the Word and thus has become imperishable. No one need now go to Nankana Sahib or to Kartarpur to meet Guru Nanak there. He is always everywhere present and available at all times. One has only to open the pages of the Guru Granth Sahib to find him there and he speaks through his Word and inspires.
“The Guru is now always with me.”
—Guru Arjan in Rag Asa
To sum up, Guru Granth Sahib Ji can really be called the synthesis of scriptures a of religions, a spiritual dictionary and an encyclopedia of philosophy. It is a guide for the social betterment and spiritual uplift of humanity. It is written in yerses whereas most of the other religious books are in prose. It is compiled and written by the originators of the religion themselves and not by their followers. It is an excellent record of social, political and religious thought in India between 12th and 17th centuries. It is secular in character.
Regarding Sri Guru Granth Sahib, Duncan Green lease writes, “Among the world’s scriptures, few, if any, attain so high a literary level or so constant a height of inspiration.
Regarding the poetry of Holy Granth, he writes: “Apart from the great religious importance certainly one of the world’s masterpieces of poetry.”
Dr. H.L. Bradshaw writes: “The Guru Granth Sahib of all the world’s religious scriptures alone states that there are innumerable worlds and universes other than our own.
The Holy Granth Sahib is described by Mr. Macauliffe as “an ocean full of innumerable pearls which can be had by trained and efficient divers only.
Dr. Arnold Toynbee writes: “In the coming religious debate, the Sikh religion and its scripture, the Adi Granth will have something of special value to the rest of the world.”
Miss Pearl S. Buck, Nobel Prize Winner, reviewing the English version of Guru Granth Sahib, translated and annotated by Dr. Gopal Singh, writes:
“Sri Guru Granth Sahib is a source book, an expression of man’s loneliness, his aspirations, his longings, his cry to God and his hunger, for communication with that being. I have studied the scriptures of other great religions, but I do not find elsewhere the same power of appeal to the heart as in these volumes. They are compact in spite of their length, and are a revelation of the vast reach of the human heart varying from the most noble concept of God to the recognition and indeed the insistence upon the practical needs of the human body. There is something strangely modern about these scriptures…
The Truth as expounded by the ten great Divine Masters architects of our modem faith and religion, and as embodied in the Sahib Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji Temains intact for all times for men of discerning minds to dive deep into its ocean of wisdom and drink the nectar of life eternal for attainment of “Sat Chit Anand”, the Absolute Bliss Consciousness.
(Courtesy Sikh Students Federation, Kenya)
Article extracted from this publication >> September 8, 1989
