Guru Granth Sahib Ji: Pride of the Sikhs

Sitting in the sangat, the congregation of seekers of the truth, a sense of peace and pride envelops the mind. The shabad as it is sung travels through the ears reaching and piercing the mind with knowledge on who we are, why we are here, the objective of life and showing a simple path to self-realization. As the mind begins to settle, it visions a clear way of life unshackled from all kinds of fears, relief from the self-centered thoughts with individual focus and feels the ever-merciful Creator’s grace.

A pride emerges and a realization that we Sikhs have been blessed with amazing intellectual gurus, who sacrificed themselves and made all efforts to preserve the shabad or “Dhurki Bani” in its original form. It is this great endeavor and the principles that they applied, we Sikhs marvel and witness the genius of our Gurus.

Sikhs proudly (humbly) acclaim that they are a blessed religious group, guided by the only scripture penned by the Gurus’ themselves and the Gurus have been open-minded to preserve the original revelations of the Bhagats of various denominations. In Gurdwaras, when non-Sikhs join the sangat during weddings or other functions, Sikhs lift their heads high and share that Guru Granth Sahib Ji — in the center stage — the spiritual wisdom of 35 enlightened saints providing spiritual guidance to the world. We never fail to state that the Sikh Gurus preserved these scriptures.

The mighty task to preserve Bani began with Guru Nanak Sahib Ji. Guru Nanak Sahib studied the social, political and religious situation of the society and found that the moral basis of society had been eroded through blind faith, embedded in ritualism and governed by corrupt religious leaders. These religious leaders had denied a major section of the general population their right to knowledge and education. The gap was strengthened by reserving the right to reading, writing and interpreting the pre-existing scriptures to a small group the religious elite. Knowledge was weaponized by this group to exploit the population socially and economically. It was further used to suppress any reformist religious movements by corrupting the utterances and writings of the Bhagats of the Bagatti movement as well as Buddhist theological works.

This suppression ensured the religious leaders could sit at the top of administration and influence rulers to do their bidding. They also introduced rituals that benefitted them and forced upon the public beliefs that created fear of punishment by their created gods if these were not accepted and adhered to by individuals. Society was shackled from all angles and bled through denials of religious rights. The general public could not even complain to the Creator as only one communication channel was owned and managed as a monopoly by the Brahmin.

PRESERVING THE BANI

Preservation of the divine revelations given in a language understood by the masses was the solution to the situation. Guru Nanak Sahib began the process by recording Bani and securing it in a special Pothi or book. As Bani emerged from the inner depths of Guru Ji’s conscience — where the Creator dwelt — Guru Sahib sang while his companion the musical maestro Bhai Mardana playing the Rebab and delivering the message to the masses. The Bani would then be recorded by Guru Ji in his own hand and the Pothi securely placed in the sling bag. As proof of this, Bhai Gurdas in his Vaar makes mention of this Pothi being carried by Guru Ji on his journey to Mecca where the Muslim leaders asked Guru ji to open his “book”, pushun khool kitab nu, and reveal which path, Hinduism or Islam, was better for deliverance.

Guru Nanak Sahib also collected the Bani of the Bhagats during his missionary travels(commonly referred to as udassis) when he visited their centers. The collection was only of those verses that were originally stated by the bhagat and in accordance with their high spiritual experiences and able to act as a beacon for all humans. As many of the writings and utterances had been changed and modified Guru Nanak under his strict selection criteria only accepted the authentic ones. This Bani was also added to the Pothi. It is amazing to witness the high standards established to ensure the world would only receive true and original revelation.

Guru Angad received this treasure and become the guardian of the “Shabad Guru” which Guru Nanak Sahib had stated in his Bani Siddh Gost. Guru Angad Sahib added his sloks and passed on this original treasure to Guru Amar Das, who after adding Bani in 17 raags, gifted it to Guru Ram Das. Guru Arjan Sahib received the treasure with Bani of 4 Gurus and of the Bhagats and reveals to the world that the treasure of the forefathers “piao dada da Khazana” was blissful. Even at this juncture historians create a story that Guru Arjan Sahib had to go to Baba Mohan the son of Guru Amar Das to get the Pothi. The first attempt to create a doubt in the minds of Sikhs.

THE GRANTH

Guru Arjan Sahib — one of the most brilliant scholar, economist, administrator, architect and strong capable warrior — decided to preserve Bani in a form that would later be called Granth. The driving force of this decision was that by this time various parties had begun the process of writing verses and calling them Bani. They used Nanak as the pen name and tried to pass off these half-baked verses as Bani. Earlier, Guru Amar Das Sahib had in Anand Sahib stated that without the Guru all else is “kachi Bani”. Guru Arjan Sahib had the mammoth task of ensuring that the treasure of Gurbani, both Bani of the Gurus and Bhagats, could be complied and secured in such a manner that it could not be modified or changed.

Guru Arjan Sahib in preparation of this task prepared a place near Santokh Saar which was filled with greenery, quiet and secure. Bhai Gurdas, a great scholar, was selected to be the scribe for the work. Special paper was secured and the formula for the ink to be used in the writing determined. These were important as the Granth was to last for centuries without paper deteriorating and ink fading. Reading of this planning process, the intelligence and strategic planning capabilities of Guru ji engulfs us and the head bows with reverence to his brilliance.

Incorporated in the planning was the principles adopted by Guru Ji for Bani preservation. The grammar, numerical counting system, the arrangement of the raags, arrangement of the Bani and the editing process are all marvelously genuine and creative. After a long period of faith-based acceptance, only now are many of us able to appreciate and realize that our present Guru, before whom we only bow, contains jewels of great value for all mankind which when applied brings individual spiritual upliftment.

Guru Arjan Sahib’s first principle was that Bhai Gurdas was only a scribe and had no authority or power to make any changes to the Bani. Secondly Guru Sahib supervised and checked all that Bhai Gurdas wrote and as a mark of approval that it was perfect added the word “shud” at the end of the vaar. Thus, in Guru Granth Sahib Ji as we read Bani, we are assured it is the verified, authentic and pure revelation of the Gurus, Bhagats, Bhatts and Sikhs. It must be remembered that during the time of preparing Aad Bir, Guru Ji was present, supervising Bhai Gurdas and editing all the work while making every decision.

Guru Arjun Sahib was the authority to decide which new Bani, aside from the treasure he had received, was to be included in the Aad Bir. It was only Guru Ji’s decision to accept and include the work of Baba Sunder, Bhai Satta and Rai Balwand and designate it as Bani. Guru Arjan was magnanimous and invited other saints to present their revelations for inclusion. The utterances of Shah Hussien, Shujju, Khanna and Pilu were rejected as these did not meet the established standards, yet a single verse of the visually disabled Sur Das was accepted as Bani. Guru Arjan also removed any possible misunderstanding regarding the status of the writings of Bhagats by adding “Bani Bhagat ta ki, Bhagat Kabir” at the start of Bhagat Bani in the Raags. Approval was also given to Bhatts, learned bards who had witnessed the lives of two Gurus and wrote in praise of the Guru. The inclusion of Bhatta keh savaiyye as Bani was important as Guru Arjan Sahib approved and accepted it as Bani. A noticeable exclusion was the writings of Bhai Gurdas, the first scribe, which was a conscious decision by Guru Arjan Sahib ji and indicates the scribe had no authority to include any verses. His poetry is available separately in two volumes in Punjabi Varan Bhai Gurdas and Braj Kabitt Savaiyye and not in Guru Granth Sahib Ji.

Guru Arjan Sahib also took the step of installing Pothi Sahib ceremoniously, after the building of Darbar Sahib. This was an open and transparent declaration to all the Sikhs spread over a wide geographical area that only and only the Bani in Pothi Sahib could be accepted as Gurbani and no other. The open declaration ensured that attempts to misguide anyone on Gurbani was put to an end. Guru ji in his intellectual brilliance had created the impregnable fort that preserved Gurbani forever.

Gurbani or the Divine Revelation was held at the highest esteem and respect. Its exposition by all the Gurus after Guru Arjan Sahib made it the central pivot in the life of a Sikh.

GURU GRANTH SAHIB

Safeguarding Gurbani and not allowing any change by anyone, even the son of a Guru, is witnessed from the ostracizing of Ram Rai. Changing even a single word was not acceptable. On the other hand, the reading of Japji Sahib with a focus by Bhai Gopala received recognition by Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji. The transfer of Guruship continued using a similar process of handing Pothi to the next Guru. This is evident from the historical fact that when the Dhir Mal group attacked Guru Teg Bahadur they took Pothi Sahib which remains with them. The Sikh reference library also had handwritten Pothi Sahibs with the signatures of Guru Har Rai Sahib and Guru Tej Bahadur Sahib Ji.

Guru Gobind Singh Ji, in line with the tradition established by all preceding Gurus, preserved Gurbani and by this time had already received the Bani of his father Guru Teg Bahadur. Thus, in 1705, Guru Gobind Singh Ji commissioned Bhai Mani Singh to be the scribe in the preparation of Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Guru Teg bahadur did not add Bani that he had received but left it to Guru Gobind Singh Ji to accomplish the task.

Despite the wars that Guru Gobind Singh fought and the pressure from all rulers, Guru Ji preserved and had in his possession Gurbani in its original form to be able to get Bhai Mani Singh to complete Guru Granth Sahib Ji. The view that Guru Ji brought forth the total Bani from memory is difficult to accept. There is not the slightest doubt of Guru Ji’s capabilities but a question that needs to be answered is how would the scribe adjust the numerical counters at the end of each shabad and totals in raags in addition to incorporating Guru Teg Bahadur’s Bani at the appropriate places and raags. Guru Gobind Singh Ji would have ensured the safekeeping of Gurbani when Anandpur was under siege by the hill rajas and mogul forces. Gurbani had such an importance to all the Gurus and the practice from the time of Guru Nanak would be the core process followed by subsequent Gurus and more so by Guru Gobind Singh Ji.

Guru Granth Sahib Ji from 1705 was with Guru Gobind Singh Ji even on his travels to the south. Guru Ji in 1708 in accordance with historical records, requested Bhai Dya Singh to “parkash” Guru Granth Sahib. Guru Gobind Singh then declared Guru Granth Sahib as Guru of the Sikhs. This was the final order of our beloved Guru who sacrificed everything in his life so that we would proudly stand tall and acclaim that Sikhs are the owners of the original revelations that guide humanity to self-realization.

The Sikh pride in their Guru has to be maintained and strengthened. Respect, reverence and attachment while being the driving force of our belief today now requires a few additional steps. Understanding Guru Granth Sahibs Ji’s correctly interpreted message, and applying it in life, leads to enlightened living. There is no other equal to Guru Granth Sahib Ji, the preserved authentic divine message approved and sanctioned by the Gurus.