Can Sikhism continue to exist without the Guru Granth Sahib?

1279 Words3 Pages

Evie Nichols 9y3

Can Sikhism continue to exist without the Guru Granth Sahib?

The Guru Granth Sahib is the sovereign active living Guru of the Sikhs. It is a voluminous text, with 1430 pages, compiled and composed during the period of Sikh gurus, from 1469 to 1708. A collection of 5,894 hymns and 1430 pages, the Guru Granth Sahib describes the qualities of God and why you should meditate on God’s name. The hymns are arranged into 31 ragas (musical groupings). Each copy of the Guru Granth Sahib, regardless of its size, is identical with regard to the layout of the pages. Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), the tenth guru affirmed the text as his successor. It remains the holy scripture of the Sikhs and is regarded as the teachings of the ten Gurus. The Guru Granth Sahib has a pivotal role in Sikh worship, as a source or guide of prayer. It is written in the Gurmukhī script, in various dialects – including Lehndi Punjabi, Braj Bhasha, Khariboli, Sanskrit and Persian – often coalesced under the generic title of Sant Bhasha. There are approximately 20 million followers worldwide, most of whom live in the Punjab province of India. The 2001 census recorded 336,000 Sikhs living in the UK. In this essay I am going to examine information surrounding the Guru, and I am going to analyse whether Sikhism could exist without it, and come to a conclusion that it could not.

Firstly, I am going to look at the history of the Guru Granth Sahib. During the Guruship of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) collections of his hymns were compiled and sent to Sikh communities for use in worship. Guru Nanak wrote 974 published hymns. His successor, Guru Angad, collected these writings. This tradition was continued by the third, fourth and fifth gurus. Guru Amar Das wrote...

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...hism and embodies all of its principles: if it was gone, Sikhism would no longer have a collection of teachings of its principles: Sikhs would have nothing to follow.
Supporting the claim in the previous paragraph, I am going to explain how the Guru Granth Sahib has a central role in Sikhism. Firstly, even to become a Sikh, the only thing which you have to do is believe in the Guru Granth Sahib and accept it as your personal Guru: following its ideology. This shows that the Guru is the main object of Sikhism, which it depends on. Also, Gurdwara means path to the Guru. Hence, if the Guru did not exist, Gurdwaras (as we know them) would not too because the Guru is their purpose of existence. In conclusion to the latter two paragraphs, without the Guru Sikhism could not exist: it has a hugely central role in the religion: guiding their way of life.

So, to conclude,

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