Prakash Purab edition, 12 September 2026. Revised from the longer article published on 10 September.
Today, 12 September 2026, we celebrate Prakash Purab, remembering the first installation of the compiled Granth at Sri Harmandir Sahib by Guru Arjan Sahib Ji in 1604. [3,4] It is a day to give thanks for Shabad Guru Granth Sahib Ji and to consider how our celebrations can help us listen with love.
When a family arranges an Akhand Paath, it needs readers for about forty-eight hours of uninterrupted recitation of Shabad Guru Granth Sahib Ji. Readers need their rota, and relatives need to know when to gather for the bhog, the concluding observance. But the arrangements are incomplete unless someone also asks how the family will listen. [2]
Guru Nanak Sahib Ji holds praise, listening and love together in Japji Sahib:
The Roman line is only a reading aid, not the translation. The English sentence gives the plain meaning.
ਗਾਵੀਐ ਸੁਣੀਐ ਮਨਿ ਰਖੀਐ ਭਾਉ ॥
Simple reading: gaaveeai suneeai man rakheeai bhaau.
Plain meaning: Sing, listen, and hold love within the mind.
Japji Sahib, pauri 5, Guru Nanak Sahib Ji, panna 2. One-line excerpt; the pauri continues. [1]
The love here is love of the One whose qualities are being sung. The pauri ends by asking the Guru for the understanding through which the One Giver of all may never be forgotten. Listening belongs within that relationship. It is more than following sounds accurately, and it is not a test of how much religious information we can remember. [1]
This matters when we speak about people whose Panjabi is limited. They should not be made to feel that their devotion counts for nothing until they can explain every line. Recitation, reverence and the wish to learn belong together. Our arrangements should help that wish grow rather than allow difficulty with language to become a permanent barrier.
What the reading requires
The Sikh Rehat Maryada, the code of Sikh conduct, is clear about Akhand Paath. Reading must be clear and correct. Hurrying so much that a listener cannot follow is irreverence; careful pronunciation may require a little longer than the usual forty-eight hours. [2]
It also expects participation by the family or congregation, with relatives and friends sharing the work. Someone unable to read should listen to a competent reader. The reader must not be left continuing alone while nobody from the family or congregation listens. [2]
A rota of listeners is therefore part of taking this responsibility seriously. It does not mean that every person must stay awake for two days and nights. A shared act of devotion can be sustained by people taking turns, each receiving different portions. Their participation need not be dismissed because no individual follows the whole reading.
We should nevertheless be honest about what the arrangement makes possible. A family member who listens on Saturday afternoon has not thereby heard the passages read on Friday night. Attending the bhog cannot supply that missing encounter. Supporting the readers and preparing langar, the shared meal, are worthwhile service, but they cannot do another person’s listening for them.
Even a well-organised relay therefore leaves a question. Is it the most suitable way for this particular family to engage with a complete reading? I do not think Akhand Paath should be the automatic or spiritually superior choice for every occasion. That judgement concerns the choice of form, not merely whether an organiser has done the job properly.
The history does not settle that choice for us. The first installation in 1604 does not itself establish the later forty-eight-hour relay. The Encyclopaedia of Sikhism says that the custom’s exact beginning is unknown; its suggested connection with eighteenth-century persecution is conjecture. Uncertain origins do not make a practice wrong. They do prevent us from claiming a precise Guru-period origin without evidence. [3]
A reading the family can return to
The Maryada also provides for Sadharan Paath: a complete reading undertaken in separate sittings. It recommends completing a full reading over one or two months, or longer. Choosing it is therefore not abandoning the complete reading. It gives that reading a different rhythm. [2]
For a family seeking to follow the whole, this may be the more suitable discipline. They can agree on a manageable time, read or listen together, and return at the next sitting to where they left off. Work, sleep and caring responsibilities need not mean that much of the reading passes while they are absent.
There can also be time, alongside the reading, to return to a complete Shabad and seek help with its meaning. A child can ask about an unfamiliar word. An older relative who knows the sound of Bani can share that familiarity with someone learning Gurmukhi. An English explanation can help without being mistaken for a replacement for the Guru’s words. These are opportunities a family can deliberately make, not benefits guaranteed by a slower pace.
Sadharan Paath can become a formality too, particularly if the family leaves it entirely to someone else. Its strength lies in the opportunity to keep returning together. The discipline is then sustained beyond the weekend or occasion that prompted it, as Bani becomes part of the household’s continuing life.
Japji Sahib gives us a reason to value that patient engagement:
ਮਤਿ ਵਿਚਿ ਰਤਨ ਜਵਾਹਰ ਮਾਣਿਕ ਜੇ ਇਕ ਗੁਰ ਕੀ ਸਿਖ ਸੁਣੀ ॥
Simple reading: mat vich ratan javaahar maanik je ik gur kee sikh sunee.
Plain meaning: Within the understanding are jewels, gems and rubies, if even one teaching of the Guru is heard.
Japji Sahib, pauri 6, Guru Nanak Sahib Ji, panna 2. One-line excerpt; the pauri continues. [1]
The line gives weight to a teaching truly received. It does not invite us to select a favourite sentence and disregard the rest of Shabad Guru Granth Sahib Ji. The pauri places the seeker before Divine grace and again asks for understanding that keeps the One Giver in remembrance. The patient learner has reason for hope without claiming mastery. [1]
Before the next Paath is arranged
A gurdwara should help a family decide how it will participate before settling the programme. Where Akhand Paath is chosen, listeners should be arranged as carefully as readers, and a fixed finishing time must not force rushed pronunciation. Where the family cannot participate meaningfully in an uninterrupted reading, Sadharan Paath deserves to be offered seriously.
Language support needs planning as well. Help people locate what is being read and arrange another time to consider selected Shabads and the Hukam, the passage received as the Guru’s guidance. This need not interrupt an Akhand Paath or turn it into a running commentary. It can give the family somewhere to take its questions afterwards.
A family in grief deserves particular kindness. We should help its members come before the Guru as they are, without promises that a donation or a completed reading guarantees the outcome they long for. Nor should tiredness, limited literacy or caring duties become grounds for humiliating them.
The purpose of recommending a slower reading is to make participation possible. A family should be able to leave the gurdwara knowing how to begin, whom to ask for help and how to continue. On this Prakash Purab, that could mean agreeing on a regular time to read or listen together, with help for those who need it. A beginning made today can continue after the celebrations, as the family returns to Bani with love and attention.
Verify
Both quotations are one-line excerpts from Japji Sahib, pauris 5 and 6, Guru Nanak Sahib Ji, panna 2. Read each within its complete pauri. The Roman lines and plain-English meanings are learning aids, not replacements for Gurmukhi.
Cross-check
Checked to 12 September 2026. The preceding review recorded comparison of the two quoted Gurmukhi lines with SriGranth and SearchGurbani’s indexed wording, reading of the complete pauris at SriGranth and in Darpan, and checking of the Maryada against scanned pages 17–18. SearchGurbani’s full pauri display was unavailable. For this Prakash Purab revision, the SGPC announcement confirming this year’s observance was checked and the installation reference revisited. The two quoted lines were rechecked at SriGranth; their wording and learning aids are unchanged. No independent reviewer check is claimed.
Correction note
This shorter revision separates the Amrit Vela discussion from the article published on 10 September 2026. This edition adds the Prakash Purab context omitted from the first shortened draft. The two retained quotations, Roman reading aids and English meanings are unchanged. PanthSeva will correct textual, interpretive, reference and factual errors publicly, calmly and with a dated note.
Source note
[1] Gurbani. Japji Sahib, pauris 5 and 6, panna 2. Professor Sahib Singh Ji’s Darpan assists the contextual reading; the argument remains answerable to Shabad Guru Granth Sahib Ji. SriGranth, panna 2 · Darpan, panna 2 · SearchGurbani, first excerpt · SearchGurbani, pauri 6.
[2] Sikh Rehat Maryada. English edition, printed pages 17–18, Articles VIII–IX, checked in a scanned reproduction. The Sadharan Paath paragraph is labelled VIII(e) in this scan. These provisions identify the recognised forms and requirements; the recommendation about a family’s choice is the essay’s argument. English Maryada, scanned reproduction.
[3] History. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s historical account supplies the installation in 1604. The uncertainty about Akhand Paath’s origins is stated in the opening “Akhand Path” encyclopaedia entry reproduced online. The appended, unreferenced account on that page is not evidence for a Guru-period origin. No fresh manuscript investigation is claimed. SGPC historical account · Opening encyclopaedia entry.
[4] Prakash Purab in 2026. The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee’s announcement of 10 September 2026 identifies 12 September 2026 as the observance of the first Prakash Purab. This establishes this year’s observance, not the Gregorian date of the original installation in 1604. SGPC anniversary announcement.
Earlier version: “The Paath Is Going On. The Listening Is Not.”, PanthSeva, 10 September 2026. Original published article.
Strong disagreement is welcome. Contempt is not.
Bhul chuk maaf karni Ji.
Gurjit Singh Sandhu
PanthSeva
London