Focus: GS I- Medieval History
Why in News?
The Prime Minister has greeted the people on the sacred occasion of the Parkash Purab of Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
About Guru Granth Sahib
- The Guru Granth Sahib was first compiled by the Fifth Sikh Guru, Arjan Dev, in 1604 in the city of Amritsar.
- Its second and last version was the handiwork of Guru Gobind Singh, and it was finalized at Damdama Sahib in the year 1705.
- He added the hymns of his father, Guru Tegh Bahadur, the Ninth Master, and a couplet of his own to the volume wrought a century earlier.
- One of the greatest glories of the Guru Granth Sahib is its catholic character.
- Perhaps it is the only scripture of its kind which contains within its sacred covers the songs, hymns and utterances of a wide variety of saints, sages and bards.
- It is instructive to note that a fairly substantial part of the volume carries the compositions of Hindu bhaktas, Muslim divines, Sufi poets and other God-intoxicated souls.
- The idea of Guru Arjan Dev was to affirm the fundamental unity of all religions, and the unitary character of all mystic experience.
- It may be observed that Guru Granth Sahib comprehends the compositions and utterances of the high-born Brahmins and the proud Kashatriyas as also of the so called lowly Shudras and the unlettered Jats. This was done at a time when the caste system in India had paralysed the conscience of man.
- The revolutionary egalitarianism which such a step symbolized was, therefore, to become the creed of the Sikhs. Above all, a poetic and mystic collage bespeaks the essential humility of the Sikh mind, for humility has been given pride of place in the table of virtues drawn up by the Gurus. The Guru Granth Sahib, then, is a sui generis scripture in the world.
- In showing the path to spiritual salvation, the Guru Granth does not ignore the secular and creative side of man.
