INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

Another discourse somewhat relevant to the discussion here is the controversy
over the use of translated versions of Guru Granth Sahib in the Sikh worship. A major
challenge for Sikh communities in the Diaspora is what to do with the fact that the
younger generations do not have sufficient knowledge to read and understand Punjabi
and the Gurmukhi script. Since text recitation is so fundamental to the Sikh religious
life people have feared that the linguistic barriers will cause major implications
for future developments in the community. The Sikhs can continue to recite from the
Guru Granth Sahib in the original language and script, with the possible result that
the majority of worshippers do not understand what is being communicated. Another
alternative, already in practice in many Diasporic communities, is to use Guru Granth
Sahib in the original version for formal installations and recitations in the gurdwara,
and sanchis translated into local vernaculars for comprehension. 727 Given the Sikh
resistance to use translated versions of the scripture, reformists have questioned the
validity of ritual acts prescribed by the authoritative tradition and warned the community
about relapsing into bibliolatry. Contradictory to the Sikh teaching, the physical
form of Guru Granth Sahib and not the teaching it contains, becomes the primary
object of worship. Sikhs will revert to the idolatrous worship and mechanical repetitions
of unintelligible sound, that is, Brahmin-like and “meaningless” practices which
the human Sikh Gurus once so strongly objected.
What modern reformists do not always pay attention to when cautioning the
community against bibliolatry is firstly the distinction between acts which aim to
venerate the body-form of the present Guru and worship acts which are a means to
engage in the sacred teaching within the scripture. In cases where individual Sikhs
cannot read gurbani, but still do matha tekna before the Guru Granth Sahib and give
the scripture a ministration similar to a honoured guest, does not automatically lead
to the conclusion that Sikhs are involved in idolatrous worship of the sacred text. To
most religious Sikhs the Guru Granth Sahib is not an icon, representing or resembling
the Guru, but is the present form of the Guru which is invested authority and agency
by the tradition. The dominant ideal is to intellectually understand the teaching enshrined
in the scripture, but if the individual Sikh fails to do so the body-form of the
Guru should still be revered, like the human Gurus once were, for what it contains
and mediates. 728 Secondly, modernist discourses do not always take into consideration
“culturally specific assumptions about the relations between language form and
727
Yet another modern way to provide semantic understanding of gurbani hymns recited in the
gurdwara is to screen PowerPoint presentations with translations before the congregation while
the granthi is reciting the texts.
728
It should be noted that ritualized services are given to iconic or aniconic objects in other
religious traditions that markedly condemn idolatry in theology and praxis. Even if orthodox
Buddhist doctrines, for instance, discourage visual representations of the historical Buddha and
emphasize his worldly absence after the release from samsaric bonds, monks and laypeople still
wash, feed and present offerings to Buddha-images that have been consecrated through the eyeopening
ceremony to express veneration to Buddha’s teaching and person. See e.g. Evers 1979,
Gell 1998, Sharf 1999, Kinnard 1999.
459
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008