Ans. There are a total of thirty one Raags in Guru Granth Sahib. The first Raag is Sri and the last one is Jai Jai Vanti. In addition, there are nine folk-tunes (also in Raags), which are prescribed for the singing of Vaars.The total number of all Shabads (hymns), Saloks (couplets) and Sawaiyyas (panegyrics) is 5,763. The first volume of Guru Granth Sahib was compiled on August 15, 1604 and installed in the Golden Temple (Harmandir Sahib) on August 30, 1604.
Bhai Gurdas was the scribe.The primary subjects included in Guru Granth Sahib are:
Laudation of God,
Recitation of His Naam,
Undivided devotion,
Control of mind,
Service of humanity and the way to live a clean life.
The Gurbani (utterances of the Gurus) emphasizes not on the salvation after death but liberation from worldly entanglements even while living an active life. It tells us to consider happiness and sorrows or affluence and poverty alike (staying in a state of equipoise under all circumstances, or staying within God’s will under all conditions). The collective subject matter is:
How to attain to the ultimate Truth (God Himself). A description of those who have attained to the Truth and also those who have failed to attain to it.
The great significance of Guru Granth Sahib lies in the fact that:
If Pythagoras wrote some principles, they did not reach us in their original form.
We know of Socrates only through the writings of Plato.
Budha did not leave his teachings in any written form.
Confucious did not leave behind any written records of the social and ethical principles attributed to him.
The founder of Christianity, Jesus Christ, also did not present his philosophy in a written form. We have to depend upon the writings of his disciples, Mathew, Luke, John etc. for that.
Mohammed, the prophet of Islam, did not write the text of Quraan himself, rather it was written by his successor Caliphs and disciples.
But the Sikh Gurus wrote their own teachings and philosophy in the form of their compositions, brought in the compositions of Bhagats, safeguarded them and the fifth Guru compiled all this collection into the anthology of Adi Granth. He then authenticated it with his own signature.
Greenlees, in his book, “Gospel of Guru Granth Sahib” has beautifully written, “In terms of purity and spiritual level it commands a high status among the religious books of the world. It is not an imitation or evolution of any other religion. The status of Guru Granth Sahib is of the highest level. It can be certainly said that the ‘Bani’ (hymns) was revealed from the inner core of the soul and no element of hearsay or transfer from a different source”.
World famous historian, Arnold Toyenbee has declared Guru Granth Sahib as “Mankind’s common spiritual treasure”.
Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa
Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh