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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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