Agnostic Khushwant by Khushwant Singh

Author:Khushwant Singh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook, book
Publisher: Hay House, Inc.
Published: 2011-12-02T05:00:00+00:00

Sikhs do not worship human beings as reincarnations of God. The Gurus themselves repeated that they were like other human beings and were on no account to be worshipped. Guru Nanak constantly referred to himself as the slave and servant of God. Guru Gobind Singh, who was the author of most of the Sikh practice and ritual, was conscious of the danger of having divinity imposed on him by his followers. He explained his mission in life:

For though my thoughts were lost in prayer

At the feet of Almighty God,

I was ordained to establish a sect and lay down its rules.

But whosoever regards me as Lord

Shall be damned and destroyed.

I am – and of this let there be no doubt –

I am but a slave to God, as other men are,

A beholder of the wonders of creation.

In another passage, he refuted claims to divinity and reincarnation made by others:

God has no friends or enemies.

He heeds no hallelujahs nor cares about cures.

Being the first and timeless

How could he manifest himself through those

Who are born and die?

Godliness being the aim of human endeavour, the lives and teachings of the Gurus are looked upon as aids towards its attainment.

The Granth Sahib

The compilation of the Granth Sahib was largely the work of the fifth Guru, Arjun Dev, and his disciple Bhai Gurdas. This compilation is known as the Adi Granth, the first scripture, to distinguish it from the Dasam Granth, the tenth scripture of the tenth Guru, Gobind Singh, which was compiled by his disciple Bhai Mani Singh.

By the ordinance of Guru Gobind Singh himself, the Adi Granth alone was given the status of the Holy Scripture as a symbolic representation of all the ten Gurus. His own Dasam Granth is read with reverence, but does not form part of ritual except at the ceremony of baptism.

The Adi Granth or the Granth Sahib contains the writings of the first five Gurus, the ninth Guru, Tegh Bahadur, and the couplet by Guru Gobind Singh. A fair part of the book, however, consists of the writings of Hindu and Muslim saints of the time, chiefly those of Kabir. The compositions of bards who accompanied the different Gurus are also incorporated in it.

The language used by the Sikh Gurus was Punjabi of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. Other writings are in old Hindi, Persian, Gujarati, Maharathi and other dialects of northern India. The whole work is set to the measure of classical Indian music with the number of the author Guru appearing first. All the Gurus used the literary nom de plume ‘Nanak’ at the end of each verse.

All the words appearing in each line are joined together, causing considerable confusion in the interpretation of the text. It is frequently impossible to tell whether there is one word or two words put together. Despite this, the Granth Sahib is a unique historical document. It is perhaps the only kind of writing of a scriptural nature that has preserved without embellishment or misconstruction the original writings of the religious leaders.

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