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Guru Granth Sahib, an encyclopaedia in song. Compendium
of philosophy in verse. Treasury of the music of saints. Mystical
light joined to the material form by the thread of Word (shabd). Chart
for the pathways to the mountain peak of highest realisation. Bringing
together on the tongue (bani) that which might have been divided at
the tower of Babel. Guide to social reformation. Clarion call to equality
of all classes, races, religions — long before the word 'secular'
came in vogue. Coffer containing secrets of yogis, Sufis, saints of
all paths and ages—locked to the blind, open to hearts filled
with devotion. The venerable Guru, the Word rendered legible to the
discerning: Guru Granth Sahib. Adi Granth, the First Book, not in
chronological time but because it is a vehicle of the First Truths
that dawn when the supplicant approaches the throne of the Timeless
Person, Akal Purukh, and 'by His Grace all one's exterior
openings close, 'one's self is beautified, the light shines, and all
the lotuses of consciousness come into full bloom.
The voices of thirty-six saints and servants of
God sing the nearly six thousand songs as though a single choir in
the cathedral of the universal mind. Spanning more than four centuries
of exterior crises and simultaneously interior revelations, they all
agree not only in their themes but even in words. Though they spoke
languages as diverse as the Sanskrit of Jayadeva and Persian of Baba
Farid, by some magic of the mystical unity of minds the languages
merge and become just the Word (shabd), the sacred speech (bani).
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