The power of release of mankind possessed by the Guru was in the Word and in Holy congregation and not in the person of the Guru.”
Bhai Gurdas.
GURU ARJUN DEVJI, the fifth Nanak of the Sikhs, was a saint, a philosopher, a born poet and a scholar of rare plenty and literary attainments. To prepare the Sikh Community for what was coming, he assisted by his trusted lieutenant Bhai Gurdas, worked for many years and edited the hymns and compositions of Guru Nanak and his 3 successors, selected the sacred songs of 15 Hindu and Muslim reformers namely Jaidev, Namdev, Trilochan, Parmanand, Sadhna, Beni, Raman and, Dhanna, Pipa, Sain, Ravidas, Beni, Sheikh Farid, Bhikham and Kabir (the last 3 were Muslim saints), contributed his own hymns and finally complied in the year 1604 the scripture called Si Guru Granth Sahib that was to become the Guru in the form of the Word. By producing such an authentic piece of literature, Guruji 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 realised God and the True religion.
The Guru Granth Sahib consists of poems totaling 29,480 rhyme verses and nearly half the composition consists of Guru Arjan Devji’s own hymns. Later on the hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, the 9th 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 on 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 breathe 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 a huge mine of faith and devotion, a repository of perfect wisdom and people from all walks of life can turn to it for comfort, inspiration and enlightenment. It is really such a great store house of wisdom and divine knowledge, within the reach of everybody, that enables a full and true life to flower. It has the potency to life man from the depth of ignorance to illumination, leading to the achievement of the highest stage of manhood. Truely it is by no means the Sikh Bible, but it is the Universal Bible of man to give him joy, to vitialise 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 it a 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. It is 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 been mixed up, in course of time with spurious and imperfect additions through ignorance, prejudices or ill-conceived zeal of their followers, and lost their purity. Nearly all the religious books suffer from interpolation and many anachronisms.
However, the sagacity and the forethought of the Sikh Gurus envisaged the possibility of such situation 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 set sit 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 thus made accessible to every person without any distinction of caste, creed, colour, race or 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.
It is the Holy Granth which was installed formerly 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 intimation took place, Guru Arjan Dev ji and the succeeding Gurus never scatted themselves on a footing of equality with the Holy Granth. They wanted to give highest position to the word of the Guru then to the Guru’s Person. It is a recorded in Sikh History that once when Guru 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 solution, 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 worshipped even by mistake.”
Although the Guru had done it only to test the Sikh’s 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 offence. Guru Har Rai declared that he would never see him for the whole of his life.
Guru Arjan preferred a martyr’s death to saving his life through making alterations in the Guru’s hymns as required by the Emperor Jehangir. How the Voice of God could 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 the first place was always given to the Word being 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 has 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 in 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 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 Assa.
To sum up, Guru Granth Sahib Ji can really be called the synthesis of scriptures, a syncretism of religions, a spiritual dictionary and an encyclopedia of philosophy. It is a guide for the social betterment and spiritual up life of humanity. It is written in verse 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 thoughts 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 teh 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’ 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 inspite of their length and area 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…”
Article extracted from this publication >> November 9, 1990
