The Saroop of Sikh Holy Book

What is the News?

The Union Minister of India has received one of the Saroops of the holy Guru Granth Sahib flown in from Afghanistan.

What is Saroop?

• Saroop is a physical copy of Sri Guru Granth Sahib also called Bir in Punjabi.
• Every Bir has 1,430 pages, which are referred to as Ang. The verses on every page remain the same.
• The Sikhs consider the Saroop of Guru Granth Sahib a living guru and treat it with the utmost respect.
• They believe that all the 10 Gurus were the same spirit in different bodies, and the Guru Granth Sahib is their eternal physical and spiritual form.

Who compiled the Guru Granth Sahib?

1. Guru Granth Sahib is a compilation of hymns written by six Sikh gurus,15 saints, including Bhagat Kabir, Bhagat Ravidas, Sheikh Farid and Bhagat Namdev, 11 Bhatts (balladeers) and four Sikhs.
2. The fifth Sikh Master, Guru Arjan Dev compiled the first Bir of the Guru Granth Sahib in 1604 and installed it at the Golden Temple in Amritsar.
3. Later, the tenth Sikh master, Guru Gobind Singh, added verses penned by the ninth master, his father Guru Tegh Bahadur, and compiled the Bir for the second and last time.
4. It was in 1708 that Guru Gobind Singh declared the Guru Granth Sahib the living Guru of the Sikhs.

Who publishes Guru Granth Sahib?

1. The installation and transportation of Guru Granth Sahib is governed by a strict code of conduct called rehat Maryada.
2. Currently, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee(SGPC) has the sole rights to publish the Birs of the Guru Granth Sahib, and this is done at Amritsar