|
Magazine
Eternal Guru
MAHINDAR SINGH
NARINDER NANU
SIKHS all over the world would be celebrating the 338th birth anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th and last Sikh Guru, on January 5, 2004. Guru Gobin Singh was born in Patna, Bihar, on December 22, 1666 and passed away at Nanded, Maharashtra, on October 7, 1708. In his autobiography, Apni Katha, which forms a part of his book Bachitra Natak, he wrote: "I came into the world charged with the duty to uphold the right in every place, to destroy sin and evil. O ye holy men, know it well in your hearts that the only reason I took birth was to see that righteousness may flourish: that the good may live and tyrants be torn out by their roots." When Guru Gobind Singh realised that his end was near, he assembled his followers and told them that the line of personal Gurus was to end with him and the Sikhs were thereafter to look upon the Granth Sahib as the symbol of all the 10 Gurus and their constant guide.
The Adi Granth or Guru Granth Sahib was compiled by the fifth Sikh Guru, Arjan and was installed in the Harimandir, the Darbar Sahib, Amritsar on August 4, 1604. In 1704, Guru Gobind Singh took it upon himself to compile a final and revised version of the Adi Granth. But he did not include his own compositions. His disciple Bhai Mani Singh had them collected in a separate volume called Dasven Padshah Ka Granth. Thus it is that the Guru Granth Sahib is to the Sikhs what the Gurus were to their ancestors: the Sacha Padshah, the true emperor. It is, till eternity, the everlasting spiritual (shabad) Guru of the Sikhs.
The Guru Granth Sahib is a unique anthology of 5894 sacred writings of 36 holy men of the Indian Subcontinent. These include only the first five Sikh Gurus and the ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur. The largest number of hymns (2218) are from the pen of Guru Arjan, followed by Guru Nanak (974), Guru Amar Das (907), Guru Ram Das (679) and Guru Tegh Bahadur (115). The hymns of the second Guru Angad are 62.
The rest of the writings are of Hindu Bhaktas and Muslim Sufis. Of these, the greatest number of hymns are those of the Muslim weaver of Benares, Kabir and Farid, the Sufi mystic of Pattan. The hymns of the Bhaktas and the Sufis in the Guru Granth Sahib represent four centuries of Indian religious thought. As such, Sikhs do not look upon it just as a holy book but they worship it as their eternal Shabad Guru and embodiment of the Word of God and the Holy Spirit as well as the living presence of the 10 Gurus. They, therefore, offer worship and not mere veneration to it. All Sikhs pay their obeisance to the Guru Granth Sahib without thinking whether their homage is to Guru Nanak or to a Muslim, Sheikh Farid. No other scripture of any other religion of the world contains any kind of writings of holy men belonging to another faith, caste or creed, or of those who were regarded as outcastes or untouchables.
The Guru Granth Sahib is religion at its democratic best. It teaches respect for all religions, belief in the freedom of the human spirit, virtue of toleration and the noble quality of appreciating whatever was valuable in other religious traditions. The lines Na koi bairi nahi begana sagal sangh hum ko ban aie, on page 722 of the Guru Granth Sahib means "None is our enemy, none is a stranger to us, we are in accord with one and all."
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Magazine
|
