The Guru Granth Sahib is the scripture of Sikhism, and something more: Sikhs honour it as their living, eternal Guru. Its 1,430 pages (angs) hold the hymns of six of the ten Sikh Gurus, beginning with the founder, Guru Nanak (1469–1539), together with hymns by saints of other backgrounds: the weaver-poet Kabir, the Sufi Sheikh Farid, the cobbler-saint Ravidas, Namdev and others. Hindu and Muslim, high caste and low, sit on the same pages.
Illustration: the scripture is poetry meant to be sung
The fifth Guru, Guru Arjan, gathered the hymns of his predecessors and of the saints into the Adi Granth (“first book”) and installed it at the Harmandir Sahib in Amritsar, the Golden Temple, in 1604. The tenth Guru, Guru Gobind Singh, added the hymns of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, and before his death in 1708 declared that after him there would be no more human Gurus: the scripture itself would be the Guru.
It is written in the Gurmukhi script, in a mix of old Punjabi, Braj, Sant Bhasha and other languages of the time. Rather than by author or subject, it is arranged by raga, the musical mode in which each hymn is to be sung: 31 main ragas in all. The scripture is meant to be sung (kirtan), not only read.
The scripture opens with Guru Nanak’s Mool Mantar, the “root formula” of Sikh belief. Word for word, and translations vary:
Ik Onkar — there is one Creator, one reality
Satnam — Truth is the Name
Karta Purakh — the Creator of all
Nirbhau, Nirvair — without fear, without hate
Akal Murat, Ajuni, Saibhang — timeless in form, unborn, self-existent
Gur Prasad — known by the Guru’s grace
The symbol ੴ (Ik Onkar), the numeral one joined to the sound of Om, is the most recognisable sign of Sikhism.
Naam Japna — remembering and meditating on the divine Name
Kirat Karni — earning an honest living by your own work
Vand Chhakna — sharing what you have with others
The Gurus rejected caste, ritual for its own sake and the idea that holiness requires leaving the world. The langar, the free community kitchen begun by Guru Nanak and made central by the third Guru, Guru Amar Das, puts the teaching into practice: everyone, of any religion or status, sits on the floor together and eats the same food. Every gurdwara keeps one, and the kitchen at the Golden Temple serves tens of thousands of people a day.
A saying often credited to Guru Nanak, “there is no Hindu, there is no Muslim”, comes from the Janamsakhis, the later traditional accounts of his life, which place it after his spiritual awakening in the river near Sultanpur. It is not a line of the scripture itself, though it sums up its spirit.
In a gurdwara the scripture sits on a raised platform under a canopy, and an attendant waves a whisk (chaur) over it as over a sovereign. Each morning it is ceremonially opened, and a hymn read from a page opened at random becomes the day’s hukamnama, its guidance; each night it is laid to rest. Complete readings, Akhand Path, run continuously for about 48 hours, with readers taking turns.
Structure: 1,430 angs, arranged in 31 main ragas
Contributors: six Sikh Gurus and fifteen saints (bhagats), including Kabir, Farid, Ravidas and Namdev
Related: Kabir, the bhakti and Sufi mystics
After the opening prayers, the hymns are arranged not by author or topic but by raga, the musical measure in which each is to be sung: thirty-one ragas in all. It is written in the Gurmukhi script and in several languages and dialects, including Punjabi, Braj, Old Hindi and Persian, reflecting the many voices it gathers: six of the Sikh Gurus, fifteen saints from Hindu and Muslim backgrounds, among them Kabir, Namdev, Ravidas and the Sufi Sheikh Farid, and court poets known as the Bhatts.
Guru Granth Sahib on Wikipedia · Britannica: Adi Granth · Sant Kabir
