Guru Granth Sahib- Guru Eternal for the Sikhs

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Introduction The first Recension of the Sikh scripture, now popularly known as the Guru Granth Sahib, was first compiled in 1604 under the personal care and supervision of Guru Arjan, the fifth Guru of the Sikh faith. Thereafter it underwent change only once when Guru Gobind Singh, the tenth and last person - Guru of the faith, added to it, in 1705, the hymns of his spiritual predecessor. Guru Tegh Bahadur; otherwise the text has ever since remained absolutely unaltered. It was a little thereafter, in 1708 to be exact, that he apotheosized the scripture, or to be more precise the Word as contained therein, as Guru Eternal for the community.

The Sikh tradition believes the Word as contained in the scripture as the spirit-incarnate of the Gurus; unlike Christianity wherein Word becomes incarnate in Jesus Christ and thus the latter becomes the central focus for the followers, in the Sikh tradition the Gurus are believed to have become incarnate in the Word. That is why Word is the central focus in the Sikh tradition. It is an article of faith and an object of deep reverence for the Sikhs: this reverence must not be confused with worship because the Sikhs do not treat the scripture as an idol to be worshipped at an altar.

The Sikhs are deeply attached to the Guru: in fact, the existence of a Sikh (lit. disciple) implies the presence of Guru (lit. teacher who removes the darkness of ignorance).

**Contents and Sample Pages**