Introduction
After the passing of the Eighth Guru into the light, a time came in Sikh History when the Ninth Guru started conducting himself from an obscure place. In the guise of “Baba Bakale”, the self styled fake Gurus had a hay day. Soon after, all the twenty-two self styled Gurus’ misdeeds became public, they vanished from the scene as “the Sun Rises, the Stars Disappear.” Makhan Shah Lubhana, a beloved of the Guru discovered the True Guru and made him known to the Sangat (devout followers of the Guru) . Well done oh great Gursikh ! We bow our head in reverence before you for your favour to us, even today. Your declaration "The true Guru has been found!" was true to its word.
Today, again, a humble Sikh of the Guru wishes to announce very firmly that again, “The True Guru is Lost!” Neither time nor my body are allowing me to do a full explanation of this statement, but it is extremely necessary to clarify the point, 'who is the true Guru?' so that we can understand how the perfect Satguru was lost and the how the Sangat will find him and again bring him upon the Gur-Gaddi (the seat of the Guru).
Beyond Perfect?
Our tenth Master gave his Sikh congregation over to this True King. The identity of this True King is nothing hidden, it is Sree Guru Granth Saahib jee. The Sikhs, after their congregational prayer, repeat the couplet that, by Akaal Purakh's order, the Khalsa Panth was created and given over to Guru Granth Sahib jee. But even then, we are not obeying and following our Master’s order, contrary to that, we are revolting against the True Guru and destroying ourselves. In this strife we have forgotten the recognition of our True Lord, that is why we are driving him out of his own home i.e. Gurdwara. As the Masands had closed the gate of the Harimander Sahib for the ninth master, in the same way we are closing our gates for the great Guru. It is so, because we are happy to enthrone “pad-chhed” Guru on our “Manjis”. Wherever we go, we find the presence and victory of this saroop. Our spiritual father, Guru Gobind Singh had not enthroned this form of Sri Guru Granth Sahib.
Those publishers, lost in the current of greed, lost in delusion and hungry for material wealth have left our Manjis barren of the True Lord. These publishers, cheats and burglars as they are, are deceiving the innocent people by showing themselves as the people's well wishers. A huge and heavy injustice, deception and corruption is being played with the public.
All people of the world and especially those calling themselves Sikhs! Use your mind's ear to read listen and reflect on the evidence. If it appeals to you, then accept it. If not, explain to this fool (the writer) the error of his ways and you may no doubt inflict a punishment. I will not hesitate or object at all.
History
Our ancestors and forefathers understood fully that the form of Sree Guru Granth Saahib with connected words or Lareedaar Saroop was the right one. Both our famous Panthic Jatehbandies, the Shromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee and the Chief Khalsa Diwaan had passed resolutions in favour of keeping Guru Granth Sahib in the old lareedaar form. Full text of those resolutions can be read in the tract published by Bhai Ram Singh Ji, "Lareedaar Sarooop." Only a single sentence from each resolution is given below: -
To print the whole collection into one copy in separated words "pad chhed," is improper and harmful for the nation (Panth) (Chief Khalsa Diwaan’s Resolution no. 2982 dated Jan 21, 1945)
No man or organization should print the “pad chhed Bir,” even its Parkash is not desirable. (Resolution no. 197 dated May 28,1950. S.G.P.C.)
Even up to this day, out of all the available copies of hand written Guru Granth Sahib, you shall not find a single copy, which is with separated words. Not to speak of the whole copy, our ancestors did not dare to write any Pothee, Gutkaa or Sainchee in pad-chhed form. It is an astonishing fact that the pad-chhed form of Guru Granth, whose printing, publishing and even Parkash were harmful and undesirable up to 1950, became acceptable for present day leaders. To consider the saroop given by the complete and perfect Guru as incorrect is the mental defect of our machine-age. It is turning away from our Guru and a slander and disrespect to our perfect Guru. A slanderer of the Great Guru is a "maha-hatiaaraa"; how can he be saved? "Sar Par Janoh Nark Hee Parai": He shall go to hell. You yourself can study the effect of slander of the Saint Guru in the 13th ashtpadee of Sri Sukhmani Sahib. Anand sahib in its twenty-second stanza says: -
“If one is detached from the Guru, he cannot find salvation. Nowhere can he find salvation. The men of true wisdom will testify to it. He has to pass through births. Even then without the grace of true Guru, he will not find salvation. In the long run, for salvation’s sake, he will have to come in the True Guru’s shelter, who will tell him the shabad (True Word). Nanak says, you yourself can conclude the fact that the salvation without Guru’s grace is impossible.”
SGPC & Pad Chhed
In accordance with its resolution, the first edition of Guru Granth Sahib, published by SGPC, was with connected words and was appealing to the heart. But private publishers for their personal ends and seeing a stumbling block in their blind profits, began to do propoganda against the Committee.
That Committee which always advocated and preached in favour of the lareedaar saroop, after some time, was swayed by the foul current of this age and began to print Pad-Chhed saroops. The Committee should have called upon Sree Akaal Takhat Sahib to boycott these materialistic, spiritually blind and deaf publishers, but it itself was lost in this current. The removal of these disrespectful publishers from the Panth would have been totally justified and necessary.
When the chief organization of the Sikhs, intended to drive them (Sikhs) to dogs, no other organization dared to come forward for showing the right path.
Responsibility of Panthic Jathebandis
The chief of the Taksal Bhai (Sant) Gurbachan Singh never allowed his students to come with pad-chhed sainchees. It was proper that the leaders of this organisation should have tried to maintain the respect of GurbaaNee and insisted on the Lareedaar Saroop. At that time, neither Taksal nor Akhand Kirtani Jatha, which claims itself to be the advocate of Guru Maharaj’s true form, came forward to alert and correct the Committee. I according to my meager resources, made efforts, but to no effect. The Committee according to its ill will succeeded in publishing Guru Granth Sahib with separated words.
At this time the AKJ considers itself the advocate of the Lareedaar Saroop, but even this Jathebandee's claim is false. There's no doubt that within this Jatha there is quite a bit of parchaar about Lareedaar Saroop, but regardless, there is no solid stand on this principle. In countless Singhs's houses, there is parkaash of pad-chhed sarooops. Many well-known Singhs include themselves in akhand paaths from the pad-chhed saroop. At big yearly Smaagams, pad-chhed saroop is on the throne. Those on the Gurmat path should not attend any smaagam with pad-chhed saroop on the throne. It would be like bowing before the manmat of the pad-chhed supporters.
Guru Sahib's Hukam is Laridar ONLY
Perhaps the above views will be given the name of fundamentalism. If this is fundamentalism, then it must be adopted. What an injustice it is that the pad-chhed supporters/doers have called their slanderous and destructive act a "bakshish" or "grace". Taking the unbroken Guru, form of Akaal Purakh, they have even broken it up and they write on the first panna of one such saroop:
ies pwvn bIV dy pd-Cyd srUp dy pRkwSn dI syvw siqgurU ny AwpxI ikRpw duAwrw SRomxI gurdAwrw pRbMDk kmytI sRI AMimRqsr qoN krvweI]
"The seva of publishing this holy Granth's Pad-chhed saroop, has by Satguru's grace been done through the SGPC of Amritsar"
After the fifth master prepared the beeR of Sree Guru Granth Saahib, he addressed the Sikh Sangat regarding its respect (according to Bhai Santokh Singh Kavee). He said the Sree Guru Granth Saahib is more respectable and honored than even his own physical body. Guru Arjan Dev and other Satgurus themselves in their lifetimes showed this respect and gave a lesson to the Sikhs (i.e. Guru Arjan not sleeping on a bed, but on the floor when Pothee Saahib had been completed, walking barefoot behind the Pothee Saahib doing Chaur and repeatedly doing its parkarma, etc.)
If our Guru had in mind the convenience of modern Sikhs, who shirk from the hard path, he would have himself given the the pad-chhed form. To make the nation ignorant of the true, real and Guru given form of the Granth and to persuade it to accept this harmful, unjustifiable manmat can never be called "sevaa by the grace of the Guru." If this is grace, then what would possibly be his wrath or displeasure? The Guru says rightly “whom He wants to go astray, his virtue He snatches away” (P-417)
If there was any hand of Guru's grace in the publishing of the pad-chhed saroop, then why would Maharaaj have given us the trouble of having a duality filled saroop? He Himself would have asked the writer, Bhai Gurdas or Bhai Mani Singh to write the words uttered by him separately, so that our ease-finding Sikhs of Kaljug may not feel inconvenienced. And by doing so, there would have been no misunderstanding about the correct separation of any words. Our history’s shining star, a perfect Sikh, Bhai Mani Singh once thought of writing the Holy Scripture with separated words. He himself mentioned his intention, to some Sikhs possessing high wisdom; but at once they rejected the idea. They considered such a step to be cutting the Guru’s body into pieces. Right away, Bhai Mani Singh came to right wisdom and drove away his wrong idea. He was prepared to allow his body to be cut limb by limb, but thought it to be the Panth’s welfare to keep Guru Granth Sahib’s form as it was. This was a unique sacrifice to give guidance to the nation for the respect of the Holy Guru.
Have we become wiser than our Gurus, martyrs, our blessed saints and pious personalities of the past that we feel no hesitation to cut up the right form of our esteemed Guru? Instead, we should cut up our vanity. This is our sheer ego that considering ourselves wiser, we are pouring our base intellect into His divine wisdom. God is unbreakable, Guru Granth Sahib is His Soul; it is also unbreakable. This is the baaNee, which came through a Perfect Spirit. So this poetry is perfect in all its aspects. No one can know its worth or limits. Who is that scholar that can honestly claim to be able to correctly split all the words? Our tenth Master says God remained unfathomable to the Vedas, the Purans, the Quaran etc. and all the kings failed to find His secrets.
byd purwn kqyb kurwn AByd inRpwn sby pchwry ]
Byd n pwie sikE AnByd ko Kydq hY AnCyd pukwry ]
Fathoming the Unfathomable
The separators of written words of Sri Guru Granth Sahib, it seems, have fathomed the unfathomable one and found his secrets. It is why they are breaking the chain; though they still call Him unbreakable. Is it not advisable to them to omit words like Achhed, Abhed (ACyd, Abyd) from their daily Jaap Saahib?
But will they give us some answers to this mystery as well? The baaNee of Sri Guru Granth Sahib begins with <> (Ik Oankar). Numerical figure ’1’ is separated from 'Oankar' by the way it is written. However, the next word serves as a guard and does not allow the Sikhs who claim to be equals of the Guru to continue forward. A true Sikh comes to his senses right here. He repents and returns from the thought of doing pad-chhed. He asks the stubborn bemukhs, 'will you keep Sat and Naam apart or together?" How will you solve this issue? You have kept Sat apart, but hundreds of times, when the briefest form of the Mool Mantar comes, "Ek oankar Satgurparsaad", there you join “Sat” with “Gurparsaad.” Why is this?
The word “Sat” comes after “Ik Oankar”. Before “Guru Parsaad” comes the word “saibhang” (so why have you linked 'sat' with 'gurparsaad'?). Hundreds of times we see the word “Gurparsaad” in Sri Guru Granth Sahib; “Satgurparsaad” is used very rarely: I have not been able to note it even once. Let this point be left here. I only wanted to emphasize that even the first word of the holy Granth does not allow us to go further.
It is a matter of surprise however, how you pad-chhedees proceeded. Is this word pronounced Satnaam, together, or separately? Not event the greatest scholar or congregation, however great it may be, can settle this problem. If it can do so, then call a great Panthic gathering to come to an agreement about this word, and show us how a unanimous decision can be passed on this issue. And if you succeed in that, we shall not object to your action of separating the words in the saroop. But I am confident you will not have succeeded. And there are hundreds of words on which opinions differ. You, yourself are in doubt or duality, on the correct pronunciation of many words: your pad-chhed saroop gives evidence of this. I do hereby point out, a few of them:
1. ‘Pur Slat’ is separated on panna 793, whereas on panna 1377 it is united i.e. Purslat.
2. ‘Sur Janho’ is separated on panna 281 whereas word of the origin ‘Surjan’ is in united form on panna 139.
3. ‘Jaikar’ word sometimes is given in united form but sometimes in separated form, Jai Kar. ( kwru, Kar with ‘aunkarh’ under "r" ‘r’ can not be a word of Gurbani.) So how do you consider "kar" to be separate?
4. On panna 88 ‘kin hee’ is given separately, but on panna 912 where the word is used again and again, the ‘kinhee’ remains united.
These are only a few from many other self-contradictions in your own print. Many more mistakes can be shown from your print. Only one will suffice.
A word “Sadhan’ meaning ‘woman’ occurs more than a hundred times in the holy scripture, you always give it in two parts ‘Sa + dhan’. In separate form it may mean “that woman”. ‘Sa’ meaning that and ‘dhan’ meaning woman. It seems your dictionary has not the word Sadhan, where as Giani Kahan Singh of Nabha and Akali Kaur Singh of Kashmir use the words ‘Sa' 'dhan’ in united form: 'sadhan'. What to do think of these two great personalities? Where does the wrong lie?
How can you now say the guru is "abhul" or "unmistakable?" So, why do you allow your own shortcomings, dualities and doubts enter into the holy Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Come to your senses! There is no grace of the Guru in pad-chhed, there is chaos/desolation. This chaos has happened, is happening and shall continue to happen if we don't come onto the straight path of the Guru.
You say that "by the Sangat's powerful demand and great desire, we have with great thought decided to print the holy pad-chhed biR" Was this secret "great thought" made known to the Panth at any time? Were the previously taken decisions and resolutions thrown in the garbage can? Were these Gurmat based decisions, which were taken as eternal, trampled under foot? Why has this bundle of manmat been opened? Why has the puraatan heritage of the Khalsa been snatched from the Khalsa's new generation?
The excuse of the Sangat's strong desire for pad-chhed is also by no means acceptable. A small child always has the desire to catch a burning flame. But do we allow him such a crazy thing? Do we allow him to play with snakes and allow him to enter the mouth of death? No, we do not. Innocent Sikh masses require guidance in this regard. “Unique are the ways of the devotees” (Bhagtan Ki Chaal Niralli) needs to be explained to them.
Conclusion
In the end, with the blessings of Satguru, I again request with all humility that printing and distribution of Guru Granth Sahib in pad-chhed form is not preaching Gurmat, but is an attack on Gurmat. It is not service of Sikhi, it is a murderous attack on Sikhi. It is not love of Sikhi, it is ego from one's own mind. For a service done out of ego, the holy Guru Granth Sahib says:
Rehan Naan Pawen Sur Nar Deva.
Ooth Sidhare Kar Mun Jan Sewa.
This is not the seva for "jan", it is for those that Maharaj warned would take birth in Kaljug.
So, take care! By printing the holy Guru Granth Sahib in pad-chhed, we are not furthering the cause of Sikhism; the case seems to be otherwise. It does not add to the grace of the Holy Scripture it only amounts to the amputation of Guru Granth Sahib. It is now time to come back to the right path and correct the past mistakes. Otherwise it will be inviting the wrath of God and our own destruction.
I seek forgiveness for any errors,
Daasan Daas, Jaswant Singh, Sree Amritsar
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥
