INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

ized undertakings, such as collective processions and transportations of the scripture,
would fall into the same category of devotional services. Seva, however, is not just
any type of action but voluntary deeds transformed to religious acts by means of the
actor’s subjective experience of devotion and surrender. The following chapter will
analyze the inherent qualities of action regarded as selfless service and how acts
charged with devotion becomes a paradigmatic means to purify the inner of humans,
earn merits, and mould personalities as humble servants of the Guru. Cognizant of
the fact the Guru Granth Sahib is not alive in any biological sense and the true Guru
is ultimately the teaching dwelling within its pages, the daily ministration of the
scripture is held to be the most pure and merit-bestowing forms of seva that articulate
and invoke enduring relationships between Sikh disciples and the spiritual preceptor
embodied in the text. The scripture should be venerated, not merely because the
tradition prescribes so, but for the reason that the scripture continues to bestow transcendental
knowledge and mediate links between humans and the divine, which is
the ultimate object of worship. For believing Sikhs the all-encompassing notion of
gurseva is not considered symbolic in the sense that the acts performed are representing
something else, even if the design of action have been moulded after culturespecific
symbolism to confer and confirm authority and regal splendor of the scripture.
Instead, the logic of ministration to Guru Granth Sahib is that it signifies real
services which permit actual physical interaction between the Guru and devotees.
Institutional layer
Social layer
Possession layer
Robe layer
Book layer
Gurbani
Figure 10.
The ministration of Guru Granth Sahib in a gurdwara may seem to be the type
of action that responds best to the nature of the text, but the acts also invest the text
with spiritual authority and social agency of a Guru acting in the world. By enmeshing
the book in a structure of daily routines of the Prakash and Sukhasan ceremonies,
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008