INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

they also construct and maintain social relationships and make the scripture a “social
other” invested agency of an authoritative personal Guru. By modes of speech and
ritual behaviors of devotees the Guru Granth Sahib becomes a cultural and social
“person” of exalted status who continues to speak and act in the world. Because the
scripture is believed to facilitate a real physical channel of communication with the
divine, Sikhs will present wishes and requests to the text and make various types of
promises in its immediate physical presence. A male interlocutor in his forties said:
“It is our present Guru. If you have any questions you just go to Guru Granth Sahib ji,
do Ardas (the Sikh supplication), take the Hukam (divine order) and you will get answers
immediately.” The hymn that appears on the left page when the text is randomly
opened constitutes the divine order that is assumed to be the Guru’s guiding
reply on a human appeal presented in a formal petition (see below part 2). The combination
of the two speech acts ‒ the reading of the prayer and the divine order –
assume a dialogical character in that they establish an ongoing direct communication
between humans and the divine through the mediating link of the Guru. God manifests
the divine will through the Guru who continues to act in the world. This idea
presumes that Guru Granth Sahib is a subject able to provide guidance and reciprocate
intentional stances that humans adapt to the text.
Some local Sikhs would argue that the scripture has capacities to see and foresee
what is happening in its immediate spatial presence and the social life of devotees.
An elderly Sikh woman alleged that the four circumambulations (char lavan)
around Guru Granth Sahib in the wedding ceremony are of great importance because
the Guru is present as a witness (sakhi) of the acts which contract a marriage. There
are a number of other practices that suggest applicability of the notion of personhood
and which here may be exemplified by the ways in which Sikhs use epithets for the
scripture, offer and exchange food with the text, and officially recognize Guru Granth
Sahib as a juridical person which can owe properties.
ANIMATED EPITHETS
Ritually and linguistically Sikhs will distinguish between the Guru Granth Sahib
printed in one single volume and the scripture (as well as translations thereof) published
in two or more volumes. The later goes by the name sanchi, which means “volume”
or “separate part of a book”, 300 and thus implies dividable properties. The
forms of address will change when the scripture is published in one single volume
and thereby is treated as a Guru. Using a personal pronoun such as “it”, which is a
reference we normally utilize for inanimate objects, would be considered extremely
derogatory to the scripture. Instead local Sikhs will address the text with a number of
terms of respect that serves to indicate the superior status of the text and power relations
actualized between the speaker and the signified. In addition to the common
title Guru Granth Sahib, the Sanskrit term maharaja, literally “the great king”, is
widely used with the prefix “Guru” when Sikhs refer to the scripture in everyday
300
Gill & Joshi 1999: 132.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008