DARBAR SHAHIB

I and Hema were at Hari Mandir Sahib also known as Darbar Shahib the Golden Temple recently, the view majestic incredibly stunning and exceedingly beautiful the temple Dome is glided with 750 kg of pure Gold, the 2 storey temple located in the centre of the Amritsar city having marble walkway, surrounded with large pool of water “AMRIT SAROVAR” housing the sacred ADI GRANTH Holy Scripture. One of the most remarkable features of the Guru Granth Sahib is that it contains the writing of persons belonging to different communities, caste, faith for instance Kabir the Muslim weaver/poet, Surdas (blind poet) Namdev from Maharashtra, Saint Ravidass the shoe maker, Bhagat  Sadhana the butcher, Dhanna cultivator from Rajasthan these holy men cover a period of six centuries from 12^th to 17^th century, all have equal status as the hymns of the Guru. The main hymn the JAPJI, the Guru Manter was written by Guru Nanak. The Gurus considered worship through music the best means of attaining a state of bliss. There are basically three prominent methods to recite Granth Sahib, one on a special occasion to be recited nonstop from cover to cover by a string of readers in 48 hrs which is known as AKHAND PATH, another SAPTAHAK PATH daily reading to be completed in 7 days and the third SEHAJ PATH easy reading can be completed at any length of period beyond 7 days. The main theme of the Sikh region which I understood from my friend Jasbir Singh Matta are:-

a)      To relieve subjects particularly Hindus from the caste system, to worship non idolatrous God, free from meaningless form of rituals. Nanak said if God is a stone I will worship a mountain. The easiest way to find peace was by meditation and singing the hymns (Kirtans)   

b)      Spiritual life does not demand one to be ascetic by fasting or denial of food; and believed that any person discharging his obligation to his family and society had a good chance of attaining salvation.

Since God is infinite he could not die to be reincarnated nor could he assume human form which is subject to decay and death. God, Nanak believed was NIRANKAR (formless) hence could not be defined.

Darbar Sahib, feeds upto 1,00,000 people per day from the free kitchen run by volunteers and this has been going on for 450 years. Women have complete equality and can aspire to be the head of their religion.

Sikhism is very simple for the masses to understand the first 5 Gurus and the Guru Granth was propounded by men who were too modest to claim kinship with God, compared to Vedas, Upniashids and Puranas the masses knew little because of sanskritisation the learning of which was exclusively with Brahmin, Saints and Teachers; and the other five Gurus had to put up resistance against onslaught of Islam which led to martyrs in Arjun, Tegh Bhadur and sons of Guru Gobind and thousands of baptized khalsa

Sikhism has a semblance to Hinduism and some of Islam the Granth carries simple spiritual message for the masses to understand which perhaps is not so among the various world religion.