The Sacred Writings of the Sikhs

Language: English
Pages: 288


About the Book

This may be described as an authorized version of certain of the Sacred Hymns of the Sikh Scriptures. It is the fruit of the joint labours of the most distinguished contemporary Sikh theologians and scholars who worked under the direction of the late Dr. S. Radhakrishnan, noted Indian philosopher and statesman. The contents comprise selections mainly from the Adi Granth, generally regarded as the greatest work of Punjabee and Hindi Literature, of which the principal authors were Guru Nanak and Guru Arjan, the first and the fifth of the ten Sikh Gurus. A remarkable feature of the Adi Granth is that it contains writings of teachers in the other religious including Hinduism and Islam and thus, as Dr. Radhakrishan writes, ''maintaining the tradition of India which respects all religions and believes in the freedom of the human spirit."The book was previously published in the UNESCO Collection of Representative works (United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization). This edition, copublished by UNESCO and Orient Longman, is in commemoration of the Tercentenary of the Khalsa.

Foreword

This translation is the first that has made the Adi Granth accessible, in more than short extracts, to the English-speaking public. Its publication is therefore an important event in the history of the now rapidly increasing contact between different peoples and civilizations in the fields of literature, religion, and other provinces of spiritual life. The Adi Granth is part of mankind's common spiritual treasure. It is important that it should be brought within the direct reach of as many people as possible. Few readers of English will have had the opportunity of hearing the Adi Granth being chanted in the G