Shri Guru Granth Saheb
First installation of the holy Granth
The Adi Granth was completed in 1604, and installed in the Golden Temple; Baba
Buddha was appointed Guru's Granthi. Guru Arjun told his Sikhs that the Adi
Granth was the embodiment of the Guru, and should be treated in the same fashion
as they respect him. When Guru Arjun first completed the Adi Granth, he placed
it upon his own bed and slept on the floor. Its words were written without any
spaces or breaks, which nowadays is hard for most people to follow.
Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last of the Sikh Gurus to take human form,
dictated the entire Granth Sahib at Talwandi Sabo now called Damdama Sahib. Dhir
Mal, the son of Baba Gurditta and grandson of Guru Hargobind, had taken
possession of the Adi Granth; he refused to give it to Guru Gobind Singh when
the Guru asked for it. Dhir Mal taunted the Guru, "If you are a Guru, then
prepare your own."
Guru Gobind Singh recreates holy Granth
Guru Gobind Singh proceeded to dictate it to Bhai Mani Singh, who recorded it on
paper. While some have questioned the authenticity of this story, it is well for
us to remember that, of course, Guru Gobind Singh was no ordinary person at all.
And, in the old days of bards and story-tellers, it was not unusual for them to
recite from memory entire epic poems. Hajis, for example can recite the entire
Qur'an and many Hindus priests could recite the Mahabarata. In a time when many
people could not read or write, oral traditions were very important. Guru Gobind
Singh included the Shabads of his father, Guru Teg Bahadur, but he did not
include his own Shabads; instead, he placed them in a separate Granth, the Dasam
Granth. The Dasam Granth is not revered as Guru, however. The great task of
re-writing the entire Guru was finally completed in 1705. The "Damdama Sahib Bir"
as it is now called was then taken to Nanded where it was installed.
Installation as Perpetual Sikh Guru
Guru Gobind Singh installed this expanded version of the Adi Granth as Guru on
October 20, 1708. This day is celebrated today as Guru Gadi Divas (Enthronement
Day). At the time of his death, he declared that the Word of God embodied in the
Siri Guru Granth Sahib was to be Guru for all time. He said, "O Beloved Khalsa,
let any who desire to behold me, behold the Guru Granth. Obey the Granth Sahib,
for it is the visible body of the Guru. Let any who desire to meet me,
diligently search its Bani." Thus the Word of God, which has manifested as Guru
in Nanak, and had passed through the ten incarnations of Guru, was now returned
to its form as the Word, the Bani, the Shabad.
Structure of the Guru Granth Sahib
Within it's 1430 pages, the shabads (hymns) of the Sri Guru Granth Sahib are
arranged in thirty-one Ragas, the traditional Indian musical measures and
scales. Within the Ragas, they are arranged by order of the Sikh Gurus, with the
shabads of the Hindu and Muslim Saints following. The shabads are written in
various meters and rhythms, and are organized accordingly. For instance,
Ashtapadi - eight steps, or Panch-padi - five steps. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib
is written in Gurmukhi script, but the shabads were written in many different
languages including Punjabi, Sanskrit and Persian.
The original bir of Guru Granth Sahib did not contain an index. However, this is
provided in some modern print of the bir to make it easy to find the location of
some of the common banis. For example, from the index, (see main article here)
it can be seen that the Japji Sahib starts at page 1 and ends at page 8;
Sukhmani Sahib is located from pages 262 to 296; the Bara Maha bani can is found
at pages 133 to 136; The bani called Anand Sahib(Bliss) can be found at pages
917 to 922, etc.
The Beginning
The Guru Granth Sahib begins with the word "Ek Onkar" – The All Pervading Being.
From this Word to the tenth Word “Gur-parshad” is called the Mool Mantra. After
this is the rest of the composition called the Japji composed by Guru Nanak Dev.
This comprises 38 Pauris or stanzas, a Prologue and an Epilogue. This is one of
the morning prayer of the Sikhs.
The next composition has two parts - (1) "So Dar" and (2) "So Purkh". The Bani,
"So Dar" contains 5 Shabads and "So Purkh" contains 4 Shabads. This form most of
the evening prayer of the Sikhs and is called the Rehras. After this is the Bani
called Sohila (full name, Kirtan Sohila), which contains 5 Shabads and is the
bed-time prayer.
The 31 Ragas
The Adi Granth starts with the a non-raga section which begins with Japji as the
first entry followed by Rehras and ending with Kirtan Sohila. Then begins the
main section consisting of 31 Ragas or chapters. A raga is a musical structure
or set of rules of how to build a melody. It specifies a scale, as well as rules
for movements up and down the scale; which notes should figure more and which
notes should be used more sparingly; etc. The result is a framework that can be
used to compose or improvise melodies in, so that melodies in a certain raga
will always be recognisable yet allowing endless variation.
Just as a raga has emotional overtone, so each chapter has spiritual
implication. The thirty-one ragas appear in the following serial order: Sri
raga, Manjh, Gauri, Asa, Gujri, Devagandhari, Bihagara, Wadahans, Sorath,
Dhanasri, Jaitsri, Todi, Bairari, Tilang, Suhi, Bilaval, Gond (Gaund), Ramkali,
Nut-Narayan, Mali-Gaura, Maru, Tukhar, Kedara, Bhairav (Bhairo), Basant, Sarang,
Malar, Kanra, Kalyan, Prabhati and Jaijawanti.
Within the 1430 pages are found Saloks of Bhagat Kabir, Sheikh Farid, Guru Tegh
Bahadur, etc.
The closing section
The Main section which consists of 31 chapters forming the the Raga section is
followed by a brief closing section. This is composed of the Mundavani (The
Closing Seal), a salok by Guru Arjan and the final composition of the SGGS,
which is the Ragamala
Historical Volumes of the Siri Guru Granth
Sahib
• KARTARPUR VAALI BIR: As described above, Guru
Arjun dictated the Adi Granth to Bhai Gur Das. This first volume, or Bir, was
made in Amritsar and later transferred to Kartarpur, where it remains today. The
opening lines are in the hand of Guru Arjun, and it bears the signature of Guru
Hargobind at the end. There are several blank pages, left by Guru Arjun to hold
the writings of Guru Teg Bahadur.Apart frommany handwritten copies of Sri Guru
Granth Sahib possessed by various persons and found in some gurdwaras the most
important is the Bir recension at Kartarpur ,near Jullundur in the custody of
Sodhi Amarjit Singh , a descendant of Dhirmal
• BHAI BANNO VAALI BIR: After completing the
Adi Granth, Guru Arjun asked one of his Sikhs, Bhai Banno, to take the
manuscript to Lahore to have it bound. During this journey, Bhai Banno had a
copy made for his own use. He inserted a few Shabads of his own choosing,
however. This version remains with his descendents.Hand written Manuscript of
Bhai Banno wali Bir is said to be available at Gurdwara Banno Sahib in Kanpur
city in India.
• DAMDAMA VAALI BIR: This is the volume
dictated by Guru Gobind Singh at Damdama Sahib to Mani Singh. In it, Guru Gobind
Singh included the Shabads of Guru Teg Bahadur. The volumes of the Siri Guru
Granth Sahib which preside over our Gurdwaras now are copies of this edition.
Worldwide praise for the holy Granth
This is what Max Arthur Macauliffe wrote about the authenticity of the Guru's
teaching
• The Sikh religion differs as regards the authenticity
of its dogmas from most other theological systems. Many of the great teachers
the world has known, have not left a line of their own composition and we only
know what they taught through tradition or second-hand information. If
Pythagoras wrote of his tenets, his writings have not descended to us. We know
the teachings of Socrates only through the writings of Plato and Xenophanes.
Buddha has left no written memorial of his teaching. Kungfu-tze, known to
Europeans as Confuscius, left no documents in which he detailed the principles
of his moral and social system. The founder of Christianity did not reduce his
doctrines to writing and for them we are obliged to trust to the gospels
according to Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. The Arabian Prophet did not himself
reduce to writing the chapters of the Quran. They were written or compiled by
his adherents and followers. But the compositions of the Sikh Gurus are
preserved and we know at first hand what they taught.
• ... "Guru Granth Sahib enshrines the message of
universal brotherhood and good of all mankind." said Dalai Lama,The
Spiritual Leader Of Tibetian Buddhism .
• ... "I am very much impressed about Sikhism and the
bravery of it's followers.I have felt and rightly too that in the welfare of
this religion lies the welfare of India." said Col.Phin Mubukant -
Minister Of Religious Affairs in Thailand in 1963.
Miss Pearl S. Buck, a Nobel laureate, gives the following comment on receiving
the First English translation of the Guru Granth Sahib (The Sikh Holy Book):
• .... I have studied the scriptures of the great
religions, but I do not find elsewhere the same power of appeal to the heart and
mind as I find here in these volumes. They are compact in spite of their length,
and are a 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 and this puzzles me until I learned that they are in fact
comparatively modern, compiled as late as the 16th century, when explorers were
beginning to discover that the globe upon which we all live is a single entity
divided only by arbitrary lines of our own making. Perhaps this sense of unity
is the source of power I find in these volumes. They speak to a person of any
religion or of none*. They speak for the human heart and the searching mind. ...
Messages from Guru Granth Sahib
The Guru Granth Sahib provides unique and unequalled
guidance and advice to the whole of the human race. It is the torch that will
lead humanity out of Kaljug, (the dark era) to a life in peace, tranquillity and
spiritual enlightenment for all the nations of the World. The main message can
be summaried as:
• All People of the World are Equal
• Women has Equal Rights as Men
• One God for All
• Speak and Live Truthfully
• Control the Five Vices
• Live in God's Hukam
• Practise Humility, Kindness, Compassion,
Love, etc
Source: SikhiWiki.com