405.The Man in Blue - The Guru Granth is our Guru

My great-cousins Ilja & Liesbeth Veltman

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The Guru Granth is our Guru

I am a follower of the teachings of the ten Gurus and of the Guru Granth Sahib. I took amrit on 14 July 1996 (at the Damdami Taksal) and I have never had doubts about that important step in my life. Guru Sahib taught us that after he passed away in 1708 we should follow Guru Granth/Guru Panth, and this has always guided me when writing about the Sikh Qaum. 

In the present debate over the Dasam Granth there are Sikhs who tell people like me that we do not respect Guru Gobind Singh and Guru’s Amrit or Khande di Pahul, because we do not respect the Dasam Granth.

How intelligent and good people cannot see the flaw in this reasoning is beyond me. Guru told us to follow the Guru Granth as our Guru, in Guru’s day there was no Dasam Granth, so there can be no misunderstanding.

I am an Amritdhari Sikh who seriously tries to follow Guru’s teachings in my daily life (while making mistakes). I am accused of having no respect for Guru, while it is my ‘accusers’ who ignore Guru’s teachings.

I have spent very little time on studying the ‘Dasam Granth’, the writings of Bhai Nand Lal or of Bhai Gurdas. I read every day from the Guru Granth Sahib, I go as often as possible to the Gurdwara to listen Guru’s shabads and I find that I keep discovering better, deeper insights.

I make no grand statements about who has written what or what is in tune with the Guru Granth Sahib and what not. When I write about these aspects I give the opinion of Harjinder Singh, who is a fallible human being. But what I have written above is based on Guru’s teachings, not on mine.

Whenever I read any book with spiritual teachings, whether those are related to the Sikh tradition (Dasam Granth, Sarbaloh Granth, Bhai Gurdas, Bhai Nand Lal) or from outside our tradition (the Bible, Al Qur’an, the Gita), the Guru Granth Sahib is the benchmark to measure these writings against.

The Guru Granth Sahib is our eternal Guru, there can be no debate over that. Námdharis can be excellent people with the most wonderful behaviour of whom the Guru would be proud, but they are not Sikhs as they follow a human Guru.

The same goes for those who put another ‘granth’ on the same level as the Guru Granth, or who follow babas, jathedars, taksals rather than our eternal Guru, the Guru Granth. They can be excellent people, they can have Godly behaviour, but they are not Sikhs.

Obviously those on either side of the debate who threaten the other side with violence have no Godly behaviour and are neither sikhs nor Sikhs.

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