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Summary of Question:	Respect To Bani
Category:	General Sikhism
Date Posted:	Monday, 8/13/2001 1:03 PM MDT

Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa , Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh.

I am an Amritdhari girl . My age is 17. My name is Mandeep Kaur. I am regularly attending Gurmat classes being held at my nearby Gurudwara. Once during the class, the person who was explaining the meaning of "JAP JI SAHIB" , was addressing the Bani as "JAP" without using "JI" or "SAHIB" . I started arguing on this.
I asked the actual preacher of that class , who was late that day that whether
it is important to adorn the name of a Bani with"JI".He said that "JI" or "SAHIB" is used with the name of a person and our "Guru Granth Sahib" is not a person.
He said that people show their respect by using these suffixes . I am not satisfied with this answer . I know that the actual name of the Bani is " JAP " , but was'nt it important to show respect to the Guru, atleast when he was preaching the other people to follow this path? Please give me the answer.

My e-mail address is "[email protected]".


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REPLY
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Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh!

The bani of our Gurus and Siri Guru is LIVING WORD. To Sikhs, our Guru is like a person, it is LIVING Guru--for Guru's words are ageless. It is Shabd Guru. Calling JapJi Sahib with 'Ji" is perfectly reasonable since it is the entire explanation of Siri Guru in 39 pauris and slok. It is for this reason that the word "Sahib" is also added to the names of our bani, which is a title of respect.

There is another reason for "Ji" and that is, it is the meditation of the soul, the "Jap" of the "ji". Ji means soul.

One last point: Calling it Jap without the Ji confuses everyone because since 5th Guru it has been called JapJI Sahib.

I hope this helps.
Guru Ang Sang,
-DKK