INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

The Sikhs have developed various systems of dividing Guru Granth Sahib for
the sequential recitations of Khulla path. A common approach is to complete a more or
less fixed number of pages every day, such as fifty or sixty pages, or to proceed
through the text by reading a selected number of hymns or sections daily. For example,
an elderly shopkeeper who kept a gurdwara at his house began his day by reciting
thirty to fifty pages from the scripture between 7.30 and 9.30 in the morning. Each
day after the Prakash ceremony he would take the Hukam and read the Ardas before
starting the recitation. His Khulla path would take a month to complete and therefore
he adjusted the ceremonial beginning and end of the recitation to the day of sangrand.
Others would devote a fixed amount of time, all from a couple of minutes to two
hours, to the recitation as a part of the daily morning worship. A younger man in his
twenties had reached page 151 in Guru Granth Sahib at the time of our conversation
and intended to complete his Khulla path within nine months. Another man of the
same age devoted himself to recitations within more indefinite temporal boundaries,
however, emphasized that he always celebrated the ceremonial conclusion (bhog)
together with his family and started another recitation on the same day.
Another popular method of performing Khulla path is to complete the recitation
within a fixed time period, such as seven days, eleven days, a month, three months,
six months, nine months, a year or more. The 1430 pages of Guru Granth Sahib will
then be mathematically divided by the number of days deposited for a recitation,
which will be named after the chosen time-frame. If the broken reading is to be a
saptahak path, or “weekly recitation” concluded within the span of seven days the
reader must accomplish approximately 204 pages per day. 463 In case a devotee is to
undertake a Barsi path, or a “yearly recitation” then at least 4 pages a day must be
recited. These calculations, however, serve more as guiding principles to schedule
broken recitations and the performer is free to read a few pages more or less according
to convenience. Preferably the reading should reach the end of Guru Granth Sahib
and be completed within the selected time frame for two reasons: firstly, to undertake
a Khulla path is to submit oneself to the discipline of daily readings from Guru
Granth Sahib, often for a specific purpose or desired end. Many consider the regularity
crucial, since it is not only to pledge oneself to accomplish a recitation but also
involves a promise to God that one will carry out this within a given time period as a
devotional act of thanksgiving or to seek divine blessings. Secondly, the final conclusion
(samapati) of a recitation is an auspicious event and should fall on the specific
day for which the reading has been undertaken. Several Sikh women in Varanasi, for
instance, engage in year-long Khulla recitations for the prosperity and long life of
their husbands and children, and neatly adjusted the conclusion to their birthdays.
When the recitation is conducted for protection of a family member who will embark
on a journey the end should always occur before the planned departure. Among my
interlocutors a monthly Khulla path was more widely practiced, often in the form of a
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Some people also do a double Saptahak path, one after another, for fourteen days, which is
called a “fortnight recitation” (Pandrahi path).
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008