Agan Bhet

By Jarnail Singh Arshi | Opinion |

What is agan and what Is bhet? Agan is FIRE and bhet is OFFERING. To anyone familiar with Sanatan/Vedic Hinduism, it’s a no brainer. Sanatan Dharma worships fire as a Devta. Fire is involved in many religious ceremonies called Havans, including in a marriage whereby the couple circumambulates the fire during their vows. In ancient Hindu texts there are havans where the Fire God is fed. Havans can be fed horses, elephants, even rhinoceroses. Ordinary Havans are fed with items like ghee, sugars, flour or oils.

Sikhi does not have a Fire Devta. Sikhs don’t worship fire or hold Havans. Hence, what is it with AGAN BHET among us?

The agan bhet in our midst is when the FIRE is FED with SROOPS of Sri Guru Granth Sahib (SGGS). Also included are religious gutkas, religious books, materials, rumallahs, chaurs, etc.

The world treasures OLD BOOKS and such materials. The Christian world has Bibles and manuscripts going back hundreds, and even, thousands of years. Muslims also treasure their books, especially religious books.

Sikhs in India and abroad have been led down the garden path by vested interests in this regard. Gangs and well-endowed syndicates actually travel the world over SEEKING OUT old saroops of SGGS – the older, the better. These sroops are billed as birdh (meaning old). They are then FED into the FIRE. This act has been sanctified as a meritorious deed and many misguided Sikhs happily plaster each page of these invaluable SGGS sroops with pure ghee, possibly so that the fire devta can consume a “healthy diet”?

The Sikh world believes that the SGGS is Eternal LIVING GURU. Yet we turn around and claim the SGGS has grown OLD and MUST BE CONSUMED BY FIRE.

And here’s another food for thought. If the Kartarpuri Sroop is not BIRDH (old) even after 600 years, what makes the other sroops BIRDH and fit only for the consumption of the fire? Many ancient sroops are available at the Takhats and at the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar.

In June 1984, when the Indian army launched an attack on the Darbar Sahib in Amritsar, and hundreds of other gurdwaras elsewhere, a FEW THOUSAND of such ancient handwritten sroops, stone press printed sroops, manuscripts, etc were INTENTIONALLY DESTROYED or possibly carted away under the cover of the Bluestar Operation. I believe the operation to seek and destroy ancient sroops elsewhere is being carried out all around the world post-1984 to complete the destruction of the Sikh Reference Library in June 1984.

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A few years back, a Sikh employee at an American airport was shocked to note that a number of old sroops had been collected and were being sent to a Dera Complex in Delhi – for supposed Agan Bhet seva. Such clandestine operations have been reported in Italy, Spain and elsewhere.

The most recent case of this fraudulent activity came to light in the city of Pooran Pur, Uttar Pardesh. A van, specially modified to transport SGGS (called Palki Sahib), was involved in a road accident in which a Muslim pedestrian was killed. When a mob began to attack the van, the Sikhs inside called for help from local Sikhs. The local Singh Sabha Gurdwara management team managed to rescue the van and its occupants. They left the police station and headed for the gurdwara. There, they discovered that the van was full of 14 SROOPS of SGGS. These were precious copies. Some were handwritten, some stone press printed dating back to the beginning of the 20^th century. And it was evident that the SROOPS had been TAMPERED WITH.

There was an influential person in the van. She was a high ranking lady member of the Jago Party of Manjit Singh GK, one time president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC). She was allegedly caught LYING that the sroops were NOT DISMANTLED and REBOUND with new pages added to it. The ADDED PAGES were the RAAGMALA which were NOT in the ORIGINAL VERSIONS. This was the most obvious adulteration visible at first glance. Other adulterations will be revealed in due time after scholars examine these invaluable sroops. Caught RED HANDED and with their salwars down – these miscreants had no answers. This incident is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg.  With the hundreds of beadbi and gangs of Chollad “holy men” going from village to village and taking away old sroops and exchanging them with NEW PRINTED ONES, who knows what dubious plans are at work.

As long as the SIKH KAUM remains in coma and stupor of blind faith (anneeh shardha) vis-a-vis the SGGS, such miscreants will not cease and desist in their nefarious designs. ALL OLD SROOPS are Sikh Treasures and should be treated as such. Old sroops brought from Shanghai and other Gurdwaras in China after it fell to Mao in 1956, from Gurdwaras in Rangoon, Burma after it became a military dictatorship, have been lost. Gurdwaras in Africa in existence for over a century have old sroops worthy of being PRESERVED. Sangats all over need to wake up and guard these TREASURES for the coming generations.

(Jarnail Singh Arshi is a freelance content creator on Gurbani, Gurmat Sikh History and Punjabi Language. The retired Malaysian government teacher and Giani in Punjabi Language contributes to various discussion groups, including the International Journal of Sikh Affairs (INJSA) and www.sikhphilosophy.net. He is also the webmaster of the Sikhi Vichar Forum website. He can be contacted at jsgyani@gmail.com)

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