INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

Bhai Gurdas (1551-1636), the term Vahiguru is composed of four holy syllables - Vava,
Haha, Gaga and Rara - which in Hindu mythology separately represent four divine
names in four ages (yug) of the creation (sat, dvapar, treta and kali). At the turn of the
sixteenth century Bhai Gurdas wrote:
In satyug, Visnu in the form of Vasudev is said to have incarnated and
the ‘V’ of Vahiguru reminds of Visnu.
The true Guru of dvapar is said to be Harikrsna and ‘H’ of Vahiguru
reminds of Hari.
In the treta was Ram and ‘R’ of Vahiguru tells that remembering Ram
will produce joy and happiness.
In kaliyug, Gobind is in the form of Nanak and ‘G’ of Vahiguru gets
Gobind recited.
The recitations of all the four ages subsume in Panchayan i.e., in the
soul of the common man.
When joining four letters Vahiguru is remembered, the jiv merges
again in its origin. 541
Local Sikhs frequently evoke this textual reference in verbal expositions on the phrase
Vahiguru, but interpret it in quite different ways depending upon individual theological
conceptions. Some would argue that the compound signifies various incarnations
of God through the time axis of a creation, including the Sikh Gurus who took human
birth in the Dark Age (kaliyug). This inclusive interpretation often interlinks mythologies
of popular Hinduism to demonstrate how the divine power has been manifested
in the divinity of Vishnu, Ram and Hari and finally Guru Nanak. The term Vahiguru
stands as a diachronically accumulated representation of a whole range of deities in
the Hindu cosmology and the apotheosized Sikh Gurus, 542 who all share their origin
from the same divine source. To utter the word of Vahiguru is thus to remember and
invoke deities in all ages.
A more common and exclusive Sikh position stresses the transcendent and impersonal
aspects of God to argue that Vahiguru is the amalgam of different labels of a
singular almighty power that governs the whole creation, and not to be associated
with incarnated deities of the Hindu tradition. According to this interpretation, to join
four separate syllables into the compound of Vahiguru is a denominative rather than
theological matter: it represents different designations of the one God which become
powerful when united. Using a body metaphor a younger Sikh man compared the
541
Jodh Singh 1998: 79.
542
An elderly female interlocutor informed that one of her family members used to do simran of
the name of Guru Tegh Bahadur instead of Vahiguru: “Every time she says Guru Tegh Bahadur,
my Guru he has done everything, he is the almighty.” It seems to be quite widely practiced that
individuals select one of the ten human Gurus who they admire and are specially devoted to,
and whose name they invoke for protection and support in various situations (for instance by
saying “Dhan Dhan Guru Tegh Bahadur ji” or “blessed is respected Guru Tegh Bahadur”).
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008