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Summary of Question:	2 Correlating Questions
Category:	Other
Date Posted:	Tuesday, 5/22/2001 12:21 AM MDT

1.Should the Guru Granth Sahib be considered a form of poetry?

2.And since it is a work of not only direct religion, but also the beauty of expression known as art, won't people take different interpretations from different view-point readings of the gurbani?

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REPLY
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Dear Yogi Singh Ji:

Sat Siri Akal. Siri Guru Granth Sahib is Shabd Guru, the Word of the Guru. That said, every shabd in Siri Guru is written in one or another specific rag styles, with rhyming verses. From a classical Indian literature perspective, the different raga styles and the approximate periods in which they were written are probably representative of the poetry common to India at the time. You could, therefore, any one of the thousands of Shabds in in Siri Guru are a form of pure poetry. Anyone listening to reading of Siri Guru would be able to hear that it is poetry.

As for interpretation, there are always going to be variations in interpretation of a Shabd's mystical meaning, because everyone has their own perspective or filter on such things, whether they are Gianis or Yogis or Gursikhs or scholars or artists. Does that really matter. There are many truths in Shabds of Siri Guru. Some people will hear and interpret all of them, others will be lucky if they understand a one. Siri Guru speaks to each person as he or she is meant to hear and understand. There is a line in Guru Gobind Singh's Kabiyo Bach Benati Chaupaee (which is also part of Rehiras Sahib) that relates to this. "Aap aapnee budh hai jaytee/barnat bhinn tuhe taytee" -- roughly translated, this says: "People, according to their different understanding, describe God differently." So, in the same way Shabd Guru/Siri Guru will speak to the poet, the artist, the scholar, the Gurmukh and be understood a little differently by each.

Guru Rakha--
-DKK