The Eternal Eleventh Guru.
The Guru Granth Sahib.
IT was the brilliance of Guru Gobind Singh Ji's decision to make Guru Granth the Everlasting Guru, and to make his Khalsa Sangat the caretaker on earth. Simplistically put the divine power came to be in in the ‘Granth & the Panth’.
The life and times of Guru Gobind Singh were turbulent times in history. Think of the political turmoil and unrest that surrounded him from childhood. Any individual human being so designated a Guru would be a target for assassination by Moghuls, or treachery by even his own associates. That would have thrown the Panth into fatal confusion.
Guru Gobind Singh ji the tenth guru of Sikhs ended the line of living Sikh Gurus by raising the Adi Granth to the status of an ‘Eternal Guru’. Guru Gobind Singh ji transmitted Guru Nanak's divine light into the divine ‘Word’ and declared that after him; the next spiritual guide would be the Baani and Guru would be the Guru Granth Sahib.
He instructed the Sikhs that it was to be celebrated and respected as the body and spirit of the ten Gurus.
Guru Gobind Singh liberated the Panth when he vested virtuous leadership in Granth and Panth. This means Guru Gobind Singh concluded that ethical principles should take the place of human personalities, and governing by consensus should take the place of an individual will.
That was a very modern democratic decision achieved at that time in a few other places in his world.
Guru Granth Sahib was given the Guruship by the last of the living Sikh gurus, Guru Gobind Singh Ji in 1708. Guru Gobind Singh said before his demise that the Sikhs were to treat the Granth Sahib as their next Guru. Guru Ji said –
“Sab Sikhan ko hokam hai Guru Manyo Granth”
Meaning “All Sikhs are commanded to take the Granth as Guru”.
So today, we could say that the Sikhs have a total of 11 Gurus, Ten came in human form and the Shri Guru Granth Sahib is the eleventh Eternal Guru.
The Baani. The Shabad. The Word.
Guru Gobind Singh Ji installed this expanded version of the Adi Granth as Guru on October 20, 1708. This day is celebrated today as Guru Gadi Divas. At the time of his passing on from this life, he declared that the ‘Word’ of God embodied in the Shri 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 Baani, the Shabad.
Adi Granth, the first rendition, was compiled by the fifth Sikh guru, Guru Arjan. The tenth guru, Guru Gobind Singh, added one shloka, dohra mahala 9 ang, 1429 and all 115 hymns of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur.
He then opened the Granth Sahib, placed five paise and solemnly bowed to it as his successor, GURU GRANTH SAHIB.
Saying 'Waheguru ji ka Khalsa, Waheguru ji ki Fateh'.
He then sang his self-composed hymn:
"Agya bhai Akal ki, tabhi chalayo Panth, Sabh Sikhan ko hukam hai Guru manyo Granth.
Guru Granth Ji manyo, pargat Guran ki deh.
Jo Prabhu ko milbo chahe khoj shabad mein le .
Raj karega Khalsa aqi rahei na koe Khwar hoe sabh milange bache sharan jo hoe."
Translation of the above:
"Under orders of the Immortal Being, the Panth was created. All the Sikhs are enjoined to accept the Granth as their Guru. Consider the Guru Granth as the embodiment of the Gurus. Those who want to meet God can find Him in its hymns. The Khalsa shall rule, and its opponents will be no more, Those separated will unite and all the devotees shall be saved."
Guru Granth Sahib or Adi Granth Ji is more than just a scripture of the Sikhs, the fact of the matter is that for Sikhs the Granth Sahib as their living Guru.
It is an anthology of prayers and hymns which contain the actual words and verses as uttered by the Sikh Gurus.
The Guru Granth Sahib is the eleventh Sikh Guru for eternity.
THE THEORY OF ONE SPIRIT
The Sikhs believe that all the ten Gurus had the same spirit. This is one of the fundamental beliefs of the Sikhs. Guru Gobind Singh recorded in one of his hymns that after Nanak came Angad and then Amardas and then Ramdas, Arjan, Hargobind, Hari Rai, Harkrishen and Tegh Bahadur, but they all had the same spirit. They looked different for they had different bodies but their spirit, the inner self, was the same.
Compare it with the Christian belief in the Holy Spirit.
The Sikhs fully believe that the divine spirit of Guru Nanak Dev Ji was passed from one guru to the next, just as the light of one lamp, which lights another and does not diminish, which is also mentioned in our Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
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