Worship (Sikhism)

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In a Sikh service , the sacred texts of the Sikhs are at the center of the meeting place, the Gurdwara (or Gurudwara), which means the door of the Guru .

Appearance of the meeting place

The external appearance of the meeting place is irrelevant, there are only minimum requirements that prohibit smoking inside the room and entering when drunk. Inside the meeting place there is a palki , an altar-like structure on which the Guru Granth Sahib lies on cloths and pillows.

procedure

The Granth Sahib is read publicly by the Granthi who sits behind it. Everyone, both the reader and the listener, sit on the floor to represent the equality of all people. A gurdwara includes the langar , a public kitchen which, like the gurdwara, is open to everyone. Anyone, regardless of their origin, be it caste , birth, education or nationality, can attend the facility and the service. Visitors are expected to take off their shoes and cover their heads before entering the room and bowing in reverence to the holy book.

Guru Granth Sahib

The Guru Granth Sahib is not only the sacred scripture of the Sikhs, but represents the visible alienated form of the 10 Gurus and is therefore also treated like a human. It is considered the spiritual source and seat of Almighty God, which is why the whole life is determined by Guru Granth Sahib. In its presence, children are blessed, marriages are made, and the dead are bid farewell. In Guru Granth Sahib, different texts from different centuries by people of different religious orientations are combined. Many texts come from the 10 gurus themselves. Guru Gobind Singh stipulated that he would be the last guru and appointed Adi Granth to be Guru Granth Sahib.

Adi Granth

The Adi Granth , which can be translated as Holy Book of the Beginning , contains among other things hymns written by the first four successors of Guru Nanak . Guru Arjan wrote a grant containing the texts of the first four gurus. From Guru Arjan himself there are 2,218 hymen. Texts by important personalities of the Santh movement such as Namdev , Kabir , Trilochan , Jaidev and Rividas also went .

Dasam Granth

The Dasam Granth , "the book of the tenth master", is another important book of the Sikhs alongside the Adi Granth. Here Guru Gobind Singh's works were found alongside texts by other authors. The Dasam Granth cannot be equated with the Guru Granth Sahib, neither in terms of scope nor in terms of appreciation, but the texts it contains are important for everyday use. For example Jaap Sahib, which is one of the texts to be recited every day.

Origin of the texts

The texts of Guru Granth Sahib come on the one hand from a large geographical area in northern India, with today's Punjab in the center, and on the other hand from several centuries, which explains the inconsistent language. The heterogeneity of the language does not, however, affect the theological orientation, which is centered on bhakti piety, i.e. loving devotion to God. The doctrine is about the one God who is of the same essence as the soul of all people, regardless of time, space and alienated form. Most of the texts are poetry written in hymn form and are reproduced with 31 traditional Indian melodies. The authors lived for a period of 500 years, whereby the oldest authors can be traced back to the 12th century and comprise a number of eleven in the period up to Guru Nanak. From the epoch of the gurus, seven out of ten are represented in the Guru Granth Sahib and are supplemented by about 23 other poets from the same period, who come from both the Hindu (from Nathiogis) and from the Muslim context (from Sufis).