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Guru Granth Sahib
Composition, Arrangement & Layout
ਜਪੁ | Jup
ਸੋ ਦਰੁ | So Dar
ਸੋਹਿਲਾ | Sohilaa
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਿਰੀਰਾਗੁ | Raag Siree-Raag
Gurbani (14-53)
Ashtpadiyan (53-71)
Gurbani (71-74)
Pahre (74-78)
Chhant (78-81)
Vanjara (81-82)
Vaar Siri Raag (83-91)
Bhagat Bani (91-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਝ | Raag Maajh
Gurbani (94-109)
Ashtpadi (109)
Ashtpadiyan (110-129)
Ashtpadi (129-130)
Ashtpadiyan (130-133)
Bara Maha (133-136)
Din Raen (136-137)
Vaar Maajh Ki (137-150)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗਉੜੀ | Raag Gauree
Gurbani (151-185)
Quartets/Couplets (185-220)
Ashtpadiyan (220-234)
Karhalei (234-235)
Ashtpadiyan (235-242)
Chhant (242-249)
Baavan Akhari (250-262)
Sukhmani (262-296)
Thittee (296-300)
Gauree kii Vaar (300-323)
Gurbani (323-330)
Ashtpadiyan (330-340)
Baavan Akhari (340-343)
Thintteen (343-344)
Vaar Kabir (344-345)
Bhagat Bani (345-346)
ਰਾਗੁ ਆਸਾ | Raag Aasaa
Gurbani (347-348)
Chaupaday (348-364)
Panchpadde (364-365)
Kaafee (365-409)
Aasaavaree (409-411)
Ashtpadiyan (411-432)
Patee (432-435)
Chhant (435-462)
Vaar Aasaa (462-475)
Bhagat Bani (475-488)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੂਜਰੀ | Raag Goojaree
Gurbani (489-503)
Ashtpadiyan (503-508)
Vaar Gujari (508-517)
Vaar Gujari (517-526)
ਰਾਗੁ ਦੇਵਗੰਧਾਰੀ | Raag Dayv-Gandhaaree
Gurbani (527-536)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਹਾਗੜਾ | Raag Bihaagraa
Gurbani (537-556)
Chhant (538-548)
Vaar Bihaagraa (548-556)
ਰਾਗੁ ਵਡਹੰਸ | Raag Wadhans
Gurbani (557-564)
Ashtpadiyan (564-565)
Chhant (565-575)
Ghoriaan (575-578)
Alaahaniiaa (578-582)
Vaar Wadhans (582-594)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੋਰਠਿ | Raag Sorath
Gurbani (595-634)
Asatpadhiya (634-642)
Vaar Sorath (642-659)
ਰਾਗੁ ਧਨਾਸਰੀ | Raag Dhanasaree
Gurbani (660-685)
Astpadhiya (685-687)
Chhant (687-691)
Bhagat Bani (691-695)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਤਸਰੀ | Raag Jaitsree
Gurbani (696-703)
Chhant (703-705)
Vaar Jaitsaree (705-710)
Bhagat Bani (710)
ਰਾਗੁ ਟੋਡੀ | Raag Todee
ਰਾਗੁ ਬੈਰਾੜੀ | Raag Bairaaree
ਰਾਗੁ ਤਿਲੰਗ | Raag Tilang
Gurbani (721-727)
Bhagat Bani (727)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸੂਹੀ | Raag Suhi
Gurbani (728-750)
Ashtpadiyan (750-761)
Kaafee (761-762)
Suchajee (762)
Gunvantee (763)
Chhant (763-785)
Vaar Soohee (785-792)
Bhagat Bani (792-794)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਿਲਾਵਲੁ | Raag Bilaaval
Gurbani (795-831)
Ashtpadiyan (831-838)
Thitteen (838-840)
Vaar Sat (841-843)
Chhant (843-848)
Vaar Bilaaval (849-855)
Bhagat Bani (855-858)
ਰਾਗੁ ਗੋਂਡ | Raag Gond
Gurbani (859-869)
Ashtpadiyan (869)
Bhagat Bani (870-875)
ਰਾਗੁ ਰਾਮਕਲੀ | Raag Ramkalee
Ashtpadiyan (902-916)
Gurbani (876-902)
Anand (917-922)
Sadd (923-924)
Chhant (924-929)
Dakhnee (929-938)
Sidh Gosat (938-946)
Vaar Ramkalee (947-968)
ਰਾਗੁ ਨਟ ਨਾਰਾਇਨ | Raag Nat Narayan
Gurbani (975-980)
Ashtpadiyan (980-983)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਲੀ ਗਉੜਾ | Raag Maalee Gauraa
Gurbani (984-988)
Bhagat Bani (988)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਾਰੂ | Raag Maaroo
Gurbani (889-1008)
Ashtpadiyan (1008-1014)
Kaafee (1014-1016)
Ashtpadiyan (1016-1019)
Anjulian (1019-1020)
Solhe (1020-1033)
Dakhni (1033-1043)
ਰਾਗੁ ਤੁਖਾਰੀ | Raag Tukhaari
Bara Maha (1107-1110)
Chhant (1110-1117)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕੇਦਾਰਾ | Raag Kedara
Gurbani (1118-1123)
Bhagat Bani (1123-1124)
ਰਾਗੁ ਭੈਰਉ | Raag Bhairo
Gurbani (1125-1152)
Partaal (1153)
Ashtpadiyan (1153-1167)
ਰਾਗੁ ਬਸੰਤੁ | Raag Basant
Gurbani (1168-1187)
Ashtpadiyan (1187-1193)
Vaar Basant (1193-1196)
ਰਾਗੁ ਸਾਰਗ | Raag Saarag
Gurbani (1197-1200)
Partaal (1200-1231)
Ashtpadiyan (1232-1236)
Chhant (1236-1237)
Vaar Saarang (1237-1253)
ਰਾਗੁ ਮਲਾਰ | Raag Malaar
Gurbani (1254-1293)
Partaal (1265-1273)
Ashtpadiyan (1273-1278)
Chhant (1278)
Vaar Malaar (1278-91)
Bhagat Bani (1292-93)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਾਨੜਾ | Raag Kaanraa
Gurbani (1294-96)
Partaal (1296-1318)
Ashtpadiyan (1308-1312)
Chhant (1312)
Vaar Kaanraa
Bhagat Bani (1318)
ਰਾਗੁ ਕਲਿਆਨ | Raag Kalyaan
Gurbani (1319-23)
Ashtpadiyan (1323-26)
ਰਾਗੁ ਪ੍ਰਭਾਤੀ | Raag Prabhaatee
Gurbani (1327-1341)
Ashtpadiyan (1342-51)
ਰਾਗੁ ਜੈਜਾਵੰਤੀ | Raag Jaijaiwanti
Gurbani (1352-53)
Salok | Gatha | Phunahe | Chaubole | Swayiye
Sehskritee Mahala 1
Sehskritee Mahala 5
Gaathaa Mahala 5
Phunhay Mahala 5
Chaubolae Mahala 5
Shaloks Bhagat Kabir
Shaloks Sheikh Farid
Swaiyyae Mahala 5
Swaiyyae in Praise of Gurus
Shaloks in Addition To Vaars
Shalok Ninth Mehl
Mundavanee Mehl 5
ਰਾਗ ਮਾਲਾ, Raag Maalaa
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Discussions
Hard Talk
I'm At The Verge Of Losing My Faith In Sikhi. Maybe Already Have. I Need Advice.
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<blockquote data-quote="gjsingh" data-source="post: 217039" data-attributes="member: 19846"><p>In my experience, 3HO uncritically transmits all the legendary stuff from the janamsakhis, such as the Gurus being polygamous, the existence of Bhai Bala, et cetera. This is alongside lots of vaguely "Indian" stuff like tantra, yoga, astrology, and vegetarianism; but I would place most of the latter in a wholly different category from the former, in that they contradict Sikhi on their face. But, taken as a whole, it never seemed to fit with the plain meaning nor the spirit of the Message. But we believe as we're told, and to this very day, the idea that the Guru might NOT have practiced polygamy never crossed my mind! For what its worth, 3HO follows the "political expediency" line of reasoning, or at least they did when I was small. But Harry makes a compelling argument against this explanation.</p><p></p><p>Personally, I am somewhat apathetic about the matrimonial situations of consenting adults not involving yours truly. Also I suspect that I am in the majority when I say that I could never be financially, emotionally, morally and spiritually stout enough to handle a pluralistic marriage myself. Of course, as others indicated, there is the lechery aspect. Most of us men have an unquenchable fire of lust burning within us. Furthermore, advertisers and "culture producers" have no qualms about stoking those fires for their own insidious purposes. You might say that a modern-day man goes about his day doused in moral napalm and holding a lit match, so to speak.</p><p></p><p>If I have understood the other posts on this matter properly, the disquiet some have expressed with regards to the Guru having more than one wife comes from the seeming contradiction between (1) their status as being as-close-to-perfect-as-possible human beings; and (2) the <em>apparent</em> sanctioning of the aforementioned moral napalm. One feels forced to conclude (3) that either (a) polygamy is morally just or (b) the Guru was not morally perfect. Either way the edifice crumbles. On (a) you have brick that doesn't fit with the rest of the wall, whereas the consequences of (b) need not be stated.</p><p></p><p>I'm not sure what to think. There may not be a "kosher" answer from the religious standpoint. But the conversation got me thinking about a 20th century Marxist philosopher named Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, who made some interesting claims about the social fabric of the subcontinent. At the risk of falling into trivial stereotypes, in Marxist terms, a society can be pigeon-holed into different "stages", the primitive stage, tribalism, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and so on. Each stage has its own morality and norms because, in Marxist terms, how we collectively live determines how we think and not vice-versa. As such, what is wrong in one era may become right in the other. Example: slavery was once tolerated, but now it is a universal taboo. But this kind of moral relativism has always been anathema for religion.</p><p></p><p>Anyways, Chattopadhyaya said that India was a unique place in the whole world because all these teleological stages co-existed at the same time there! (Whether this invalidates the project of Marxist sociology is not for me to say.) But if you think about about it, there is considerable truth to his observation even today. Setting aside the questionable "socialism" of the Congress party, or even of the West Bengal and Kerala governments, consider the following. Traveling the length of a single country you can go from the Tata cartel in Mumbai and the Bangalorean IT industry (global capitalism), to the bleakest feudalism in the villages, all the way through to the isolated tribals living deep in the forests of Jharkand and elsewhere. To me, this is a remarkable situation compared to say, the United States, which clearly has a unitary social system (scattered polygamist Mormons notwithstanding). </p><p></p><p>But Marxists like Chattopadhyaya are forced to admit that despite schematics like this, there can be no clean break between one era and the next. On this view, you might say polygamy is a hold-over from earlier, more austerely patriarchal kind of social organization. As others have noted in this thread this institution was even more normalized in the past. So is it sacrilege to suggest that the Gurus were of their time and place, despite the timelessness of their teachings? In an sort of unsatisfying way this solves the problem, in that proposition (2) above turns into a question of historical context. Or to be more precise, it is moral behavior for one time and place but not the other.</p><p></p><p>Side note, the subcontinent is also home to many of the relatively few instances that anthropologists know of polyandrous (1 wife, multiple husbands) societies. One supposes that this is likewise an even more ancient holdover, since we read about polyandrous marriage in the Mahabharata, which was probably already an ancient story when it was first written down long ago.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="gjsingh, post: 217039, member: 19846"] In my experience, 3HO uncritically transmits all the legendary stuff from the janamsakhis, such as the Gurus being polygamous, the existence of Bhai Bala, et cetera. This is alongside lots of vaguely "Indian" stuff like tantra, yoga, astrology, and vegetarianism; but I would place most of the latter in a wholly different category from the former, in that they contradict Sikhi on their face. But, taken as a whole, it never seemed to fit with the plain meaning nor the spirit of the Message. But we believe as we're told, and to this very day, the idea that the Guru might NOT have practiced polygamy never crossed my mind! For what its worth, 3HO follows the "political expediency" line of reasoning, or at least they did when I was small. But Harry makes a compelling argument against this explanation. Personally, I am somewhat apathetic about the matrimonial situations of consenting adults not involving yours truly. Also I suspect that I am in the majority when I say that I could never be financially, emotionally, morally and spiritually stout enough to handle a pluralistic marriage myself. Of course, as others indicated, there is the lechery aspect. Most of us men have an unquenchable fire of lust burning within us. Furthermore, advertisers and "culture producers" have no qualms about stoking those fires for their own insidious purposes. You might say that a modern-day man goes about his day doused in moral napalm and holding a lit match, so to speak. If I have understood the other posts on this matter properly, the disquiet some have expressed with regards to the Guru having more than one wife comes from the seeming contradiction between (1) their status as being as-close-to-perfect-as-possible human beings; and (2) the [I]apparent[/I] sanctioning of the aforementioned moral napalm. One feels forced to conclude (3) that either (a) polygamy is morally just or (b) the Guru was not morally perfect. Either way the edifice crumbles. On (a) you have brick that doesn't fit with the rest of the wall, whereas the consequences of (b) need not be stated. I'm not sure what to think. There may not be a "kosher" answer from the religious standpoint. But the conversation got me thinking about a 20th century Marxist philosopher named Debiprasad Chattopadhyaya, who made some interesting claims about the social fabric of the subcontinent. At the risk of falling into trivial stereotypes, in Marxist terms, a society can be pigeon-holed into different "stages", the primitive stage, tribalism, feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and so on. Each stage has its own morality and norms because, in Marxist terms, how we collectively live determines how we think and not vice-versa. As such, what is wrong in one era may become right in the other. Example: slavery was once tolerated, but now it is a universal taboo. But this kind of moral relativism has always been anathema for religion. Anyways, Chattopadhyaya said that India was a unique place in the whole world because all these teleological stages co-existed at the same time there! (Whether this invalidates the project of Marxist sociology is not for me to say.) But if you think about about it, there is considerable truth to his observation even today. Setting aside the questionable "socialism" of the Congress party, or even of the West Bengal and Kerala governments, consider the following. Traveling the length of a single country you can go from the Tata cartel in Mumbai and the Bangalorean IT industry (global capitalism), to the bleakest feudalism in the villages, all the way through to the isolated tribals living deep in the forests of Jharkand and elsewhere. To me, this is a remarkable situation compared to say, the United States, which clearly has a unitary social system (scattered polygamist Mormons notwithstanding). But Marxists like Chattopadhyaya are forced to admit that despite schematics like this, there can be no clean break between one era and the next. On this view, you might say polygamy is a hold-over from earlier, more austerely patriarchal kind of social organization. As others have noted in this thread this institution was even more normalized in the past. So is it sacrilege to suggest that the Gurus were of their time and place, despite the timelessness of their teachings? In an sort of unsatisfying way this solves the problem, in that proposition (2) above turns into a question of historical context. Or to be more precise, it is moral behavior for one time and place but not the other. Side note, the subcontinent is also home to many of the relatively few instances that anthropologists know of polyandrous (1 wife, multiple husbands) societies. One supposes that this is likewise an even more ancient holdover, since we read about polyandrous marriage in the Mahabharata, which was probably already an ancient story when it was first written down long ago. [/QUOTE]
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I'm At The Verge Of Losing My Faith In Sikhi. Maybe Already Have. I Need Advice.
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