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Puran
Singh

Below: 1st from bottom - Guru HarGobind, the Sixth Master, helping free 52 rajas from the Gwalior Fort [Calendar image, courtesy: The Singh Twins]. 2nd from bottom - Guru Amardas, the Third Master. 3rd from bottom - Guru Nanak, the First Master.

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The Book of the Ten Masters

A Book Review by MANJYOT KAUR

 

THE BOOK OF THE TEN MASTERS, by Puran Singh. Singh Brothers, Amritsar, 2004 reprint. ISBN 81-7205-148-4. 159 pages. Price: Rs. 80-00.

 

When it comes to words of Sikh significance with the power to ignite and delight the mind and heart, very little  -  with the exception of the Sikh scriptures themselves, of course  -  can match the works of Prof. Puran Singh. The Book of the Ten Masters is a prime example of his pre-eminence among Sikh writers.

A finely-crafted Foreword by Ernest Rhys starts this book. Urging the Western reader to "throw aside modern disbelief", Rhys portrays Sikhi most sensitively and respectfully, as "a living faith, inspired and reinspired by Divine Idea and by the Living Word" of Guru Granth Sahib.

There are many books about the Sikh Gurus that give in-depth accounts of the historical and political events of their times, without imparting a real sense of their spiritual horizons. A mystic par excellence, the author satisfyingly provides this dimension in a seemingly effortless manner. Right from the first words of the first chapter, describing Guru Nanak as a child  -  "He came like a Song of Heaven, and began singing as he felt the touch of the breeze and saw the blue expanse of sky"  -  the capacity of Puran Singh's words to soothe and uplift our souls is fully apparent.

Not surprisingly, each of the first ten chapters of this work corresponds to the life of one of the ten Sikh preceptors. So closely does Puran Singh adhere to the fundamental Sikh tenet of all ten Gurus sharing the same jot, or divine light, that every one of Guru Nanak's successors bears his name along with their own  -  the Second Master, for example, being referred to as "Angad Nanak".

Sikhi's foundations truly come alive in a most meaningful way throughout Chapter One. Many of the most familiar janamsakhis are represented here; they often, however, receive unusual additions or endings that give the stories unique lyrical and poetic touches.

For example, when entranced by the Assamese sorceress, Nur Shah, the Guru's minstrel companion, Mardana, "drank without water and ate without bread".

After splashing water with the pilgrims at Hardwar (albeit in a different direction), Guru Nanak, when asked his caste and origin by the Hindu priests, replies, "My caste is the same as that of wind and fire, and I come from a town whence come both day and night".

As with the chapters to follow, passionate imagery of the highest poetic order is interspersed throughout the narratives of Guru Nanak's life. As he invests his beloved Lehna with the Guruship, "worlds are lighted", our hearts, "their veils lifted", become "gardens of love and peace", and all of humanity, "in concourse with the Immortals", is healed through "showers of sparks of Divine Fire and the Song of Nam".

As Guru Angad finds a worthy successor in his aged disciple, Amardas, who, in turn, chooses his humble son-in-law, Jetha, to become the Fourth Master, Guru Ramdas, Puran Singh shows us, through a sequence of fascinating anecdotes, how Sikhi continued to take shape, and became firmly established, along with its centers of faith and learning. Guru Nanak's Kartarpur is joined by Khadur, Goindwal, and Amritsar. The succession of Gurus then becomes a hereditary one, with generation upon generation of Guru Ramdas' family ascending to the Throne of Nanak.

The task of compiling the poetry of his predecessors fell to Guru Ramdas' youngest son, Guru Arjan, who gathered the hymns of the first four Masters  -  "streams of love whose cooling melody yearns for the Beloved, and sings of the magic spell of His glance"  -  into what would later become Guru Granth Sahib, and, adding many more of his own verses, enshrined them in the great temple he completed, the Harmandar Sahib at Amritsar. Puran Singh masterfully captures their ineffable sacred essence, celebrating them in words of soaring beauty, as "informed with the Spirit of God, the song-chants of the Glory of the Highest, at Whose high door wait a million prophets".

As Guru succeeds Guru, the reader is taken through the centuries of Sikh history, utterly captivated by the mesmerizing flow of Puran Singh's masterful retelling of these timeless stories. When Anandpur, "where all castes and creeds and colours met in one joyous crowd", becomes "the centre of a new Saviour-Nation", the author's ethereal, joy-suffused prose makes us feel as if we are standing right next to Guru Gobind Singh as he transmutes his disciples, with "his flashing sword of love", into the Khalsa, "in the culmination of Guru Nanak's genius".

Just as the Khalsa was born straight from the soul of Guru Gobind Singh, so did he make the sacred Granth Sahib his successor  -  "another Angad". "And thus", Puran Singh tells us as the circle closes, "the Tenth Master ends in the First, Guru Nanak, again".

The first and last human Gurus also remain together at the book's very end, where a chapter entitled, "Guru Nanak: His Art and Thought" is followed by a selection of Puran Singh's free translations from the Dasam Granth. Like the chapters that preceded them, the words of these two final sections warmly glow with unabashedly sincere spirituality, straight from the author's loving heart.

When sharing his musings about Sikhi's Founder-Guru, Puran Singh wistfully recalls, "There is a fragrance of roses as we name Nanak. While writing about him, I have felt the shower of rose petals on these pages and the perfume of the Golden Temple all about me".

And, thanks to the exquisite prose and poetry he so artfully pens in The Book of the Ten Masters, so can we!

Besides a number of proofreading and editing glitches, not wholly unexpected in a publication of this nature, there is only one notable bump in the road to bliss on which Puran Singh takes his readers. This is the complete lack of page numbers for Gurbani quotes. As they are given solely in English translation, without the inclusion of the original Gurmukhi text, there is no way to locate them in Guru Granth Sahib using reference works such as Tuk Tatkara. Unless the reader is exceedingly familiar with Guru Granth Sahib (an achievement which, alas, this reviewer is far from attaining), he or she would be deprived of seeing these quotes in context within the body of the sacred scripture.

This caveat aside, it would not be hyperbole to call The Book of the Ten Masters a work of breathtaking beauty and genuine inspiration, for both Sikhs and non-Sikhs alike. Puran Singh's writing makes all the Gurus come gloriously alive for us, cogently portrayed as perpetual wellsprings of Divine Truth and Love.

On every page of this splendid book, the light of Sikhi powerfully shines forth, in all its vivid vibrancy and eternal, universal relevance.

Conversation about this article

1: Harpal Singh (Silver Spring, U.S.A.), October 30, 2007, 8:50 AM.

Excellent review. Please forgive me for digressing a bit from the topic: you used "Harmandar Sahib" and "Golden Temple" interchangeably. To me, it is a pity that we haven't come up with an appropriate moniker for our highest seat of authority - the closest with which I would be comfortable is "Darbar Sahib". The words "Golden Temple" certainly reflects how Sikhism is being practiced among some Sikhs at the present time, but just isn't an appropriate name for a Sikh place of worship. "Golden" - worldly glitter - it smacks of worldly things, not spirituality. The word "temple" we find abhorrent for a Sikh place of worship. The other name we use - "Harmandar Sahib" - which literally means "temple of God", again doesn't reflect the way Sikhs would like to name their highest seat of spiritual authority. There are references to the "Harmandar" within Guru Granth by Guru Amar Das and Guru Ram Das, but those references are to one's soul, not a physical temple. It is time that we came up with an appropriate name.

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