Sri Guru Granth Sahib- The living Guru of the Sikhs

Sri Guru Granth Sahib- The living Guru of the Sikhs

When Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth Guru of The Sikhs and creator of Khalsa Panth ( Panth means path or way of Life) was about to leave for his heavenly abode, he gathered the Sikhs and told them about the inevitable. The Sikhs were inconsolable yet some of them asked the Guru Who after you? As it had been a tradition among all the previous Gurus to name a successor during their lifetime. The Guru replied that after this day there will be no corporal Guru and the spirit of the Gurus shall reside in Guru Shabad (word) as contained in the Adi Granth.

Adi Granth was compiled and edited by Guru Arjun Dev the fifth Guru who collected the hymns of the four Gurus before him as well as of some other saints-both Hindus and Muslim- who shared the Gurus’ vision of unity of God, equality and fraternity besides his own hymns. Later Guru Gobind Singh added the hymns of Guru Tegh Bahadur in the volume.

In the year 1708,Guru Gobind Singh performed the coronation ceremony and designated the Granth as eternal Guru of the Sikhs. The Adi Granth came to be known as Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS). After the coronation he ordained as follows

ਆਗਿਆ ਭਈ ਅਕਾਲ ਕੀ ਤਬੈ ਚਲਾਯੋ ਪੰਥ

ਸਬ ਸਿਖਨ ਕੋ ਹੁਕਮ ਹੈ ਗੁਰੂ  ਮਾਨਿਓ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ

ਗ਼ੁਰੁ ਗ਼੍ਰੰਥ ਜੀ ਮਾਨਿਓ  ਪ੍ਰਗਟ ਗੁਰੂ ਕੀ ਦੇਹ

ਜੋ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਕੋ ਮਿਲਬੋ ਚਹੈ ਖੋਜ ਸ਼ਬਦ ਮੈ ਲੇ

The Panth was created as ordained by the Lord

Accept Granth as Guru, this is my command

Treat Granth as Guru’s living body

Those who want to merge with the almighty

Shall find the path

In the Guru’s word and thought.

After the departure of Guru Gobind Singh, the Sikhs revered the Granth with same respect that would have been due to any living corporal Guru. However, a period of about one hundred years thereafter, was a period of Great turmoil for the Sikh panth. The Mohammedan rulers and the Sikhs had been at loggerheads since the times of Moghul emperor Jahangir who had declared their fifth Guru Arjun Dev as a rebel and ordered his execution after Guru had refused to make changes in the Adi Granth according to Mohammedan beliefs. . This was followed by execution of Ninth Guru Tegh Bahadur who was considered as a stumbling block in the way of complete forced Islamisation of India by the emperor Aurangzeb. After his execution, Guru Gobind Singh took upon himself the odious task of containing the tyranny of Moghuls and continued his struggle till the end at a great personal cost. After the Guru, the Sikhs continued their struggle for the next hundred years facing untold hardships and Genocide. In all the tumults and turmoil of this dark period of Sikh history, when they virtually lived on the backs of the horses, they always took guidance from the hymns of SGGS and tried to maintain its respect to the best of their ability even in most difficult of the times though limited by the circumstances

Finally they decimated the Mughals and established their own kingdom over a large territory in North Western part of Indian sub-continent.

Upon gaining power under the leadership of Maharaja Ranjit Singh the first thing they did was to restore the dignity and honour of the Harimandir.

Harimandir in Amritsar was originally built by Guru Arjun Dev.  Adi Granth was housed there for the first time in 1604.  Harimandir had all along been the central place of worship for the community and therefore also the target of hatred by the enemies of the Sikhs. Harimandir was demolished by the Muslim rulers in the eighteenth century. It was rebuilt by Maharaja Ranjit Singh. Though preserving its original architecture, he gold plated the building which subsequently came to be known popularly as Golden Temple.On restoration of Harimandir, SGGS was placed inside and once again regained its pristine glory.
As stated ,Maharaja Ranjit Singh upon wresting power in Punjab got reconstructed Sri Harimandir Sahib and reinstated the pristine glory of SGGS. It may however be added that during the hard times faced by the Sikhs the adherents of Udasi sect,an ascetic sect founded by Baba Sri Chand ,the elder son of Guru Nanak had been looking after some of the historical Sikh shrines .In a well-researched article on Udasi sect published in Sikh Review of October 1994, Ms Jasbir Kaur Ahuja wrote,  “Being ascetic and unbaptised, they escaped persecution at the hands of the Mughal authorities, and when Sikhs were hunted down in tyrannical genocide, and many had withdrawn into deep forest to reorganise for guerrilla war, the Udasis kept the torch burning as custodians of their Gurdwaras and kept the  spirit of Sikhism alive. The Nirmala Sadhus also helped the Sikhs in their missionary activities in the Malwa region. The Order of the Nirmalas had been created by Guru Gobind Singh ji.” However, these sects had over the time acquired a strong Sanatanist –traditional Hindu- leaning and many of them practised idolatory and even placed the idols of Hindu gods alongside SGGS in te Gurudwaras. They also performed certain rituals which contravened the purist Sikh tradition and Rahat Maryada or code of conduct as ordained by Guru Gobind Singh. It is believed that during the reign of Maharaja the gurudwaras continued to be with the clerics or pujaris of the Udasi sect as the Sikhs of the Khalsa remained preoccupied with the protection and expansion of the regime.

The Sikh regime however proved to be short-lived and was soon annexed by the British colonialist after the death of Maharaja who did not leave behind an able heir to the throne. After the demise of Ranjit Singh and fall of the Sikh empire the number of Sikh populace began to dwindle sharply due to proselytising activities of Brahmo Samaj and Christian missionaries.  This was largely attributed to Hindu practices that had penetrated into the Sikh faith defiling its doctrine of Unity of God and shunning of useless rituals thus making it vulnerable. As a reaction to this and to stem the rot, many reformist movements were started during the latter part of nineteenth century. Most significant of them was the Singh Sabha Movement. This movement sought to purge the Sikhism of all the Hindu rituals those had been introduced into Sikhism and which it thought to be against the Sikh tenets. The movement was a great success and it heralded an era of renaissance in Sikhism. But it was not an unmitigated success as it almost equated the worship of SGGS to idolatry. Thus greatly affecting the reverence traditionally shown to the Granth since the coronation by Guru Gobind Singh. So much so that a deplorable practice of keeping SGGS locked in almirahs after Sukhasan or formal closing of the Granth for the day. This was hardly the way to show respect to the Guru Granth which was ordained to be living Guru of the Sikhs.

It was the time when Baba Nand Singh came on the scene and took upon himself to restore the due respect of Sri Guru Granth Sahib. He himself had great faith in SGGS and was believed to have seen The Guru Granth transforming into Guru Nanak Dev, the founder master of the Sikh faith and talking to him at a Gurudwara in Ferozepur.

Baba ji implored the people to respect the Guru Granth as much as they could. He said that Guru or God is not dependant on us for its glory as the Gurubani (guru’s hymns) says

ਜੇ ਸਭਿ  ਮਿਲਿ  ਕੈ ਆਖਣ ਪਾਹਿ

ਵਡਾ ਨਾ ਹੋਵੈ ਘਾਟਿ  ਨਾ ਜਾਇ

Even if everyone was to join in speaking of Him

He shall neither become greater nor smaller (SGGS P9)

No praise or respect can affect the Guru or Lord but definitely it will do a lot of spiritual and worldly good to the seeker. Guru’s grace is like the ocean and the respect and faith are like the pot .Bigger the pot more the water it retains. It was Babaji’s campaign that once again fully restored the honour of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and today respect of SGGS among the Sikhs has reached its pinnacle. Notwithstanding the cynicism expressed in some Sikh as well as non-Sikh quarters, SGGS is now housed in air conditioned surroundings at almost all the large Gurudwaras, wrapped in best of cloths as a symbol of the Sikhs’ respect for the SGGS, their living Guru. The events of 1984, when SGGS was specially targeted and defiled, only further cemented the Sikhs’ faith in the sovereignty of Sri Guru Granth Sahib.

However, a warning must be sounded that while Guru’s physical form deserves all the respect, best respect can be shown to the Guru only by following the Guru’s teachings as contained in the hymns of the holy Guru Granth for the Gurubani or Guru Shabad is the real Guru. It is great to recite the Bani but it is still greater to live as per the guru‘s dictates which shall result in

ਇਹ ਲੋਕ ਸੁਖੀਏ  ਪਰਲੋਕ ਸੁਹੇਲੇ

ਨਾਨਕ ਹਰਿ ਪ੍ਰਭਿ  ਆਪਹਿ  ਮੇਲੇ.

 Pleasure here and peace hereafter

Nanak, the lord makes you to meet Himself, the Master (SGGS P 292)