INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

establishes new bonds between the Guru and disciples at a special location. In the
customary supplication that will follow, the new guardians of the text will ask pardon
for tribulations they have caused and formally welcome the Guru to their house
or community of disciples. Like an honored guest invited for a longer stay at the
house, the text will be ceremonially greeted when it is installed.
THE LAST CEREMONY
Even if community members treat the Guru Granth Sahib with respectful care in the
daily worship, protect the scripture from dust and dirt, turn over the pages with the
utmost care, and wrap it in both underclothing and robes suitable for the season, still
the scriptural body will get old and damaged. A printed scripture will generally stay
in the gurdwara for forty to fifty years if long-lived. After this, when the scriptural
body loses its vigor, the pages are getting folded or the bindings become loose or
even broken, the scripture is considered “aged” (biradh [Punjabi] or vraddh, [Hindi]),
and should consequently be exchanged for a new volume. In a solemnized manner
the worn out Guru-scripture will be transported to the town of Goindwal Sahib beside
the river Beas in Punjab to be cremated in a ceremony termed Agan Bhet samskar,
or “the rite of the fire sacrifice”. Just like the human body made of the five elements is
consigned to fire after death, the scripture should similarly be burnt down to ashes
after completing a worldly existence. An oft-stated reason legitimizing this highly
ritualized treatment of old Guru Granth Sahib is the fear of letting the Gurus’ printed
words get into the wrong hands and be exposed to negligence. A granthi in Varanasi
imagined the most dreadful scenario of having tobacco rolled in its sheet:
When the Guru Granth Sahib ji is getting old it is very important
to do samskar. If we do not do that it is a type of insult to the
Guru’s bani in it, so it is better to cremate it. Like anyone can
take it from here, the shopkeepers can take it and tear pages
from it and sell tobacco in it. That would be a huge insult to
Guru Granth Sahib ji.
In the year of 1999 the two main gurdwaras in Varanasi were in possession of eleven
Guru Granth Sahib, each of which were used for daily worship and recitations. At the
same time Gurubagh Gurdwara stored about 40 biradh scriptures, which had completed
a life-work and were respectfully kept in cupboards under robes. The gurdwara
committee in Varanasi had offered the service to take these old scriptures into
safe custody while they waited for transportation to Goindwal for the last cremation
ritual.
Mass-production of printed versions of the Guru Granth Sahib in the later part
of twentieth century confronted the Sikh community with a new urgent issue of disposal:
what do to with the large quantities of printed scriptures that are no longer in
use? How should old and damaged scriptures be taken care of? What should the
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008