The Sikh religion, the youngest of all major religions in the world, originated with Guru Nanak Dev (1469-1539) whose 550th birth anniversary was celebrated the world over in 2019. It evolved under Guru Nanak's nine successive successors until Guru Gobind Singh (1666-1708), the tenth Guru of the Sikh faith, put an end to the line of person-Gurus and bestowed the pontifical office for all times to come on the Sabad (Word) as contained in the Sikh scripture, now acknowledged and revered as the Guru Granth Sahib. As it is, the Guru Granth Sahib, which comprises hymns of six (first five and the ninth) Gurus of the Sikh faith as well as those of holy men coming from Bhakti and Sufi traditions, occupies a central place in the life of a Sikh who seeks guidance from it in every walk of life. The Sikhs seek blessings of the Word-Guru before starting a new venture and offer thanksgiving at the successful conclusion of any project. They revere the Guru Granth Sahib but do not worship it as an idol at the altar. They are supposed to read it, understand the meaning of what they read, reflect on that meaning and then live that message in their life.
Guru Nanak composed, according to Mahan Kosh, 947 hymns which are included in Guru Granth Sahib under 19 ragas or musical measures. In fact, it is from his exalted hymns that the teachings of the Guru emerge. One may not find the coherence of a reasoned and systematic treatise in these hymns since they are all in poetical form. That is why it is always helpful to study these hymns as an organic whole to arrive at a true and comprehensive message of the Guru. A study of these hymns makes it obvious that the metaphysical doctrines articulated by the Guru are the fount of a new and distinct religious alternative which is beyond conventional Hinduism and Islam. The Guru also took out, after having had revelation at Sultanpur Lodhi, preaching odysseys to share the revelatory message with humankind in general: he travelled far and wide throughout India and even beyond, visiting holy places of different traditions and meeting various holy persons there to have dialogue with them - 'to first listen to them and then put forth his own viewpoint'.
As a mark of our humble homage to the Guru at the time of his 550th birth anniversary, we decided to prepare a selection of Guru Nanak's hymns on different subjects and make an English adaptation of it. The idea was to prepare a sort of compendium of his bani to facilitate the reader desirous of knowing the Guru's views on some of the more important subjects. We began by reading through the bani of Guru Nanak, make a list of subject-titles to be included in this proposed collection and select the hymns to go under each title. We also decided to give transliteration into Roman script of the original Gurmukhi text so that the readers who are not well conversant with the Gurmukhi script can also read the original. On the left side page of the book is given the hymn in Gurmukhi script with its Roman transliteration below, and on the opposite right hand page is the English rendering of the hymns: as it is, it is not just translation but a little detailed adaptation, filling the ellipses wherever necessary and decoding the metaphors in the process.
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