Recently, Singh jee and I had a chance to do Gurughar yatra in India. All historical Gurdwaras under the SGPC are required to have larivaar saroop in India. In a larivaar saroop, Gurbani is written in a continuous form, and it’s this form that was given Gurugaddi by Badshah Darvesh Guru Gobind Singh ji. Padd-ched is a recent business oriented invention in which words are separated by manmat.
It was sad to see that only a few historical Gurudwaras had larivaar saroop. One of the granthis of a historical Gurudwara actually told us that this particular Gurudwara had a parkash of larivaar saroop. Nevertheless, pathis were recommended by the SGPC, and they asked the SGPC to have padd-ched saroop at that Gurudwara. It is ironic how this so called Supreme Sikh body supposed to implement policies, and at the same time, they are involved in breaking them. Many pathis including the main granthis are not trained to read from the larivaar saroop; hence, they don’t do larivaar saroop parkash even if they have it at the Gurudwara sahib. Gurudwaras are literally run like businesses. A few want to do parkash of Guru Sahib’s original form, but they feel that their hands are tied.
There was another historical gurudwara nearby our house. We asked a guard about the saroop, and he told us there is larivaar parkash. We decided to go there every day to matha-tek. Towards the end of our trip, we happened to visit the Gurudwara whilst hukamnama was being taken. We did parkarma of Guru Sahib ji, and noticed that there was a padd-ched saroop. I felt so betrayed. It was as if an arrow had struck my heart. Bani is respectable in any form; however, Guru ta sada ek hi ah.
We were excited to visit many historical Gurudwara, but we were disheartened at the same time that we couldn’t do ardas to Guru Sahib Ji because pooran Guru Sahib was not there. I hope the new re-elected SGPC president, Prof. Kirpal Singh Badungar (was also a President for 2 years in the early 2000s), takes a pivotal step in restoring larivaar saroops in our historical Gurudwaras. Guru Sahib ji kirpa karan!
ਸਤਿਗੁਰਬਚਨਕਮਾਵਣੇਸਚਾਏਹੁਵੀਚਾਰੁ॥