Can Sikhism continue to exist without the Guru Granth Sahib? Essay exam

Can Sikhism continue to exist without the Guru Granth Sahib? The Guru Granth Sahib is the active living Guru of the Sikhs: a long text with 1430 pages, compiled and composed during the period of Sikh gurus, from 1469 to 1708. A collection of 5,894 hymns and 1430 pages, the Guru Granth Sahib describes the qualities of God and why you should meditate on God’s name. The hymns are arranged into 31 ragas, which are musical groupings. Every copy of the Guru Granth Sahib has an identical layout of pages. The Guru Granth Sahib was declared as Guru Gobind Singh’s (1666-1708) successor, by himself. It is the holy scripture of the Sikhs and is regarded as the teachings of the ten Gurus, as well as treated like as a sovereign living Guru. The Guru Granth Sahib has a pivotal role in Sikh worship, as a source or guide of prayer; and it in many ways defines Sikhism: outlining all of the laws, rules and ideas of it. It is written in the GurmukhÄ « script, in various dialects – including Lehndi Punjabi, Braj Bhasha, Khariboli, Sanskrit an d Persian – often merged under the broad title of Sant Bhasha. There are approximately 20 million followers worldwide of Sikhism, most of whom live in the Punjab province of India: a state in the northwest of India. The 2001 census recorded 336,000 Sikhs living in the UK. In this essay I am going to examine information surrounding the Guru, and I am going to analyse whether Sikhism could exist without it, and come to a conclusion that it could not. Firstly, I am going to look at the history of the Guru Granth Sahib. During the Guruship of Guru Nanak (1469-1539) collections of his hymns were compiled and sent to Sikh communities for use in worship. Guru Nanak wrote 974 published hymns. His successor, Guru Anga... ... a guide or leader, it is Sikhism. It embodies every aspect of it and contains the teachings of those who created Sikhism and lead it. So, in a nutshell, the Guru Granth Sahib is the gateway to Sikhism and the religion could not exist or function without it. Works Cited http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guru_Granth_Sahib http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/gcsebitesize/rs/god/sikhrevelationrev3.shtml http://www.sikhs.org/art11.htm http://esikhs.com/ http://www.vam.ac.uk/vastatic/microsites/1162_sikhs/sikhism/sikhism.htm http://sikhism.about.com/od/gurugranthsahib/p/Guru_Granth.htm http://www.time4truth.com/sikhism.htm http://atheism.about.com/library/FAQs/sikh/blfaq_sikh_india.htm http://www.allaboutsikhs.com/sikhism-articles/sikhism-and-contemporary-problems-of-religious-philosophy http://www.alislam.org/egazette/updates/sri-guru-granth-sahib-a-brief-history/