The Many Faces of KBS Sidhu. Part One
Gurjit Singh Sandhu | PanthSeva
The series title refers to the public roles in which S. Karan Bir Singh Sidhu Ji appears: writer, former magistrate, senior officer and adviser. Each part examines one role on its own record. Part One concerns his public use of Gurbani.
Plain-English renderings are mine. The Roman line under each Gurmukhi line is only a reading aid. It is not the translation. The English sentence gives the plain meaning.
On 4 September 2026, S. Karan Bir Singh Sidhu Ji republished his Janmashtami article. One caption still said that the Ram temple at Ayodhya was “expected to be completed by early next year”. Those words belonged to the 2023 copy. They were still there in 2026.
The caption had not been updated. Neither had the central claim.
Sidhu Ji’s article is misleading. It says Guru Arjan Sahib Ji validates the distinct work of Vishnu’s avatars, supports several paths to the same Divine reality, and joins Krishna’s stories to Gurbani as a combined guide for life. But his explanation covers stanzas one to seven, skips stanzas eight to twenty, and then gives stanza twenty-one. Among the missing stanzas is the one that tells the reader how the Divine names in the Shabad are to be understood.
This was not one hurried festival post. The article first appeared on 6 September 2023, was revised for Gita Jayanti on 22 December 2023, returned for Janmashtami in 2024 and 2025, and was republished on 4 September 2026. The argument has been offered to readers at least five times.
The verse Sidhu Ji leaves out
Sidhu Ji says limited space prevented him from explaining the whole composition. Limited space cannot justify leaving out the teaching that controls the conclusion.
ਕਿਰਤਮ ਨਾਮ ਕਥੇ ਤੇਰੇ ਜਿਹਬਾ ॥
ਸਤਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਤੇਰਾ ਪਰਾ ਪੂਰਬਲਾ ॥
kiratam naam kathe tere jihbaa.
sat naam teraa paraa poorbalaa.
The tongue speaks names formed for You. Your Sat Naam has existed from the very beginning.
Maru, Mahalla 5, stanza 20, Panna 1083, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji. These are the opening two lines of the stanza; the stanza continues.
Professor Sahib Singh Ji explains kiratam as names made by beings after seeing Divine qualities. He explains paraa poorbalaa as meaning from the very beginning. The names have meaning, but they do not define or limit the One. Sat Naam was not produced by the stories, forms or labels through which human beings speak. Sat Naam precedes them.
That is the verse Sidhu Ji leaves out.
Without it, the reader sees a list of names linked with Krishna, Rama and other avatars. With it, the reader hears Guru Sahib distinguish those formed names from Sat Naam. The omission changes what the article can support.
This argument is not new. In Ham Hindu Nahin, first published in 1898, Bhai Kahn Singh Nabha Ji gives the Hindu speaker almost the same case. The speaker points to Madhusudan, Damodar, Rikhikesh, Krishna and other names in this Shabad as evidence of avatar belief. The Sikh answer quotes stanza twenty: kiratam naam and Sat Naam.
More than a century ago, the answer to the list of avatar names was the verse Sidhu Ji now leaves out.
What the complete Shabad says
Sidhu Ji does not merely point out that Krishna-related names are present. That fact is obvious. He gives those names a Vaishnav meaning and then attributes that meaning to Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
His own selected material already creates a problem for him. In stanza seven, he quotes:
ਅਮੋਘ ਦਰਸਨ ਆਜੂਨੀ ਸੰਭਉ ॥
amogh darasan ajoonee sanbhau.
Your Darshan never fails. You are beyond birth and self-existent.
Maru, Mahalla 5, stanza 7, Panna 1082, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji. This is the opening line of the stanza; the stanza continues.
The translation Sidhu Ji prints says the Divine “is not born” and is “self-existent”. Yet he later says Guru Sahib validates the distinct roles of Divine incarnations. He does not explain how his claim of incarnation stands with the line he has already quoted.
The omitted stanzas make the problem clearer. Stanza fourteen names the One as Nirankar, without form. Stanza fifteen says:
ਆਪੇ ਗੋਪੀ ਆਪੇ ਕਾਨਾ ॥
ਆਪੇ ਗਊ ਚਰਾਵੈ ਬਾਨਾ ॥
ਆਪਿ ਉਪਾਵਹਿ ਆਪਿ ਖਪਾਵਹਿ ਤੁਧੁ ਲੇਪੁ ਨਹੀ ਇਕੁ ਤਿਲੁ ਰੰਗਾ ॥੧੫॥
aape gopee aape kaanaa.
aape gau charaavai baanaa.
aap upaavahi aap khapaavahi tudh lep nahee ik til rangaa.
You Yourself are the gopi, the milkmaid, and You Yourself are Krishna. You Yourself graze the cattle in the forest. You create and You bring creation to an end; not even the smallest trace of its play clings to You.
Maru, Mahalla 5, stanza 15, Panna 1083, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
Guru Sahib does not leave Krishna standing as an independent Divine person whose surrounding theology governs the Shabad. The One is spoken of as both Krishna and the gopi. The One creates the whole creation and remains untouched by it.
The movement continues. Stanza sixteen says that no tongue can describe even one Divine quality fully. The later stanzas turn to Sadh Sangat, grace, Naam and Shabad. Then stanza twenty distinguishes the names spoken by the tongue from Sat Naam. The final stanza asks to remain among the servants of the One.
Sidhu Ji moves in the other direction. He writes that Guru Arjan Sahib Ji is “validating each avatar’s distinct role in maintaining cosmic equilibrium”. He says the Shabad shows “multiple routes to comprehending the same ultimate reality”. He closes by giving Krishna’s stories a guiding place in earthly life and Gurbani a spiritual place, calling the two “complementary” for the person he describes as a Karmayogi.
These are Sidhu Ji’s claims. They are not the conclusion of the complete Shabad.
The Shabad does not divide life into a Krishna-led worldly path and a Gurbani-led spiritual path. It does not say that avatar stories and Gurbani are two matching sources for the Sikh. It does not establish several independently authorised religious paths. Sidhu Ji adds those claims after leaving out the stanzas that govern the names.
A name appearing in Gurbani does not bring every belief attached to that name into Gurmat. Gurbani also uses Allah, Khuda, Ram, Hari, Gobind and Narayan. Each name must be heard under the complete Shabad in which Guru Sahib has placed it. The surrounding religion does not take control of the Guru’s meaning.
Sidhu Ji reverses that order. He lets the outside story decide what the Gurbani reference must mean.
Janmashtami and the claim of Divine birth
The article is offered for Janmashtami, the festival marking Krishna’s birth on the eighth lunar date. Guru Arjan Sahib Ji addresses that claim directly on Panna 1136:
ਸਗਲੀ ਥੀਤਿ ਪਾਸਿ ਡਾਰਿ ਰਾਖੀ ॥
ਅਸਟਮ ਥੀਤਿ ਗੋਵਿੰਦ ਜਨਮਾ ਸੀ ॥੧॥
sagalee theet paas ddaar raakhee.
asattam theet govind janmaa see.
All the other lunar dates are set aside, and the claim is made that Govind was born on the eighth.
The Rahao gives the teaching to hold:
ਭਰਮਿ ਭੂਲੇ ਨਰ ਕਰਤ ਕਚਰਾਇਣ ॥
ਜਨਮ ਮਰਣ ਤੇ ਰਹਤ ਨਾਰਾਇਣ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
bharam bhoole nar karat kachraa-in.
janam maran te rahat naaraa-in. Rahao.
Misled by delusion, people make unsound claims. Narayan is beyond birth and death.
Bhairau, Mahalla 5, Ghar 1, Panna 1136, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji. The first two lines form stanza 1. The next two lines are the Rahao, the centre of the Shabad.
The Shabad closes:
ਜਨਮਿ ਨ ਮਰੈ ਨ ਆਵੈ ਨ ਜਾਇ ॥/
ਨਾਨਕ ਕਾ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਰਹਿਓ ਸਮਾਇ ॥੪॥੧॥
janam na marai na aavai na jaai.
naanak kaa prabh rahio samaai.
The One is not born and does not die, does not come and does not go. Nanak’s Prabh remains present throughout.
Bhairau, Mahalla 5, Ghar 1, Panna 1136, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji. These are the closing two lines of the Shabad.
Professor Sahib Singh Ji’s explanation is explicit. The claim being answered is that God was born in Krishna’s form on the eighth lunar date. The Rahao answers that Narayan is beyond birth and death.
Sidhu Ji does not examine this Shabad.
He cannot answer it merely by saying that an avatar is a voluntary Divine appearance rather than an ordinary human birth. That is a Vaishnav answer. If Sidhu Ji claims Guru Arjan Sahib Ji teaches it, he must prove it from Gurbani. He has not done so.
A Sikh can wish Hindu neighbours well on Janmashtami. A Sikh can understand why Krishna’s stories matter deeply to them. None of that permits a Sikh writer to attribute Vaishnav avatar doctrine to Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
Friendship does not require the Guru’s teaching to be changed.
The correction required
This article has now been offered to readers at least five times. It can no longer be treated as a passing phrase or a single careless festival greeting. It is a repeated public position.
The fault is clear. Sidhu Ji selects genuine Gurbani references, gives them the surrounding Vaishnav doctrine, and then presents that doctrine as Guru Arjan Sahib Ji’s validation. He leaves out stanza twenty, which tells the reader how the names are to be understood. He also leaves unanswered the Rahao in which the same Guru says Narayan is beyond birth and death.
The result is not a dependable exposition of the Shabad. It is Sidhu Ji’s proposed Sikh and Vaishnav synthesis presented with the Guru’s authority.
S. Karan Bir Singh Sidhu Ji should correct the article. He should restore the omitted teaching, withdraw the claim that Guru Arjan Sahib Ji validates avatar doctrine unless he can establish it from the complete Shabad, and identify the Krishna and Gurbani arrangement as his own proposal.
The verse left out is not a minor gap. It is the verse that decides what the names can prove.
Put it back, and Sidhu Ji’s claimed harmony is no longer the Guru’s conclusion. It is his own.
The Guru’s teaching must govern the interpretation. In Sidhu Ji’s article, it does not.
* * *
Verify
The Gurmukhi and Panna locations were checked at SriGranth and SearchGurbani.
Professor Sahib Singh Ji’s Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan was checked for:
· kiratam and paraa poorbalaa on Panna 1083: names made by beings after seeing Divine qualities, and Sat Naam as present from the very beginning;
· the movement from Nirankar, through Krishna and the gopi, towards grace, Naam and Shabad in stanzas fourteen to twenty;
· the Panna 1136 Shabad: the claim that God was born in Krishna’s form on the eighth lunar date, and the Rahao teaching that Narayan is beyond birth and death.
Every quotation attributed to Sidhu Ji was checked against the 4 September 2026 repost.
Gurbani quoted
ਕਿਰਤਮ ਨਾਮ ਕਥੇ ਤੇਰੇ ਜਿਹਬਾ ॥
ਸਤਿ ਨਾਮੁ ਤੇਰਾ ਪਰਾ ਪੂਰਬਲਾ ॥
Maru, Mahalla 5, stanza 20, Panna 1083, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
ਅਮੋਘ ਦਰਸਨ ਆਜੂਨੀ ਸੰਭਉ ॥
Maru, Mahalla 5, stanza 7, Panna 1082, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
ਆਪੇ ਗੋਪੀ ਆਪੇ ਕਾਨਾ ॥
ਆਪੇ ਗਊ ਚਰਾਵੈ ਬਾਨਾ ॥
ਆਪਿ ਉਪਾਵਹਿ ਆਪਿ ਖਪਾਵਹਿ ਤੁਧੁ ਲੇਪੁ ਨਹੀ ਇਕੁ ਤਿਲੁ ਰੰਗਾ ॥੧੫॥
Maru, Mahalla 5, stanza 15, Panna 1083, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
ਸਗਲੀ ਥੀਤਿ ਪਾਸਿ ਡਾਰਿ ਰਾਖੀ ॥
ਅਸਟਮ ਥੀਤਿ ਗੋਵਿੰਦ ਜਨਮਾ ਸੀ ॥੧॥
ਭਰਮਿ ਭੂਲੇ ਨਰ ਕਰਤ ਕਚਰਾਇਣ ॥
ਜਨਮ ਮਰਣ ਤੇ ਰਹਤ ਨਾਰਾਇਣ ॥੧॥ ਰਹਾਉ ॥
ਜਨਮਿ ਨ ਮਰੈ ਨ ਆਵੈ ਨ ਜਾਇ ॥
ਨਾਨਕ ਕਾ ਪ੍ਰਭੁ ਰਹਿਓ ਸਮਾਇ ॥੪॥੧॥
Bhairau, Mahalla 5, Ghar 1, Panna 1136, Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
Cross-check
Every Gurmukhi line, Panna reference, Bani heading, Mahalla attribution and quotation boundary can be checked at SearchGurbani and SriGranth.
Correction note
If a mismatch is found in the Gurmukhi, Panna reference, Bani heading, Mahalla attribution, Roman reading line, English sense, quotation or source description, PanthSeva will correct it publicly, calmly and with a dated correction note.
Source note
The article examined is S. Karan Bir Singh Sidhu Ji’s “Janmashtami Greetings: Lord Krishna as Vishnu Avatar in Gurbani of Guru Arjan Dev Ji”, reposted on 4 September 2026.
The publication record is: first published on 6 September 2023; revised for Gita Jayanti on 22 December 2023; reposted for Janmashtami on 25 August 2024; reposted again on 15 August 2025; and reposted on 4 September 2026. The 2025 post itself says that it is sharing the previous year’s Janmashtami piece again.
The Gurmukhi and Panna checks used SriGranth Panna 1082, SriGranth Panna 1083 and SriGranth Panna 1136. Professor Sahib Singh Ji’s Sri Guru Granth Sahib Darpan entries for Panna 1082, Panna 1083 and Panna 1136 were used for the contextual meanings described above.
Some English line renderings used by Sidhu Ji also appear in Dr Sant Singh Khalsa Ji’s translation, used by SriGranth as its default English text. This article does not accuse Sidhu Ji of inventing those phrases. The criticism concerns the stanzas he selected, the explanations he added and the conclusions he attributed to Guru Arjan Sahib Ji.
The Ham Hindu Nahin comparison follows the English text available online, in which the Hindu speaker cites the names from this Maru Shabad and the Sikh speaker answers with kiratam naam and Sat Naam. Panjabi readers are encouraged to check the original text directly.
This article judges a published argument. It makes no claim about private motive.
The doctrinal judgement remains answerable to Shabad Guru Granth Sahib Ji.
Checked to 5 September 2026.
S. Karan Bir Singh Sidhu Ji is invited to reply. If he marks his reply for publication, PanthSeva will publish it in full and unedited.
Strong disagreement is welcome. Contempt is not.
Bhul chuk maaf karni Ji.
Gurjit Singh Sandhu
PanthSeva
London
Next in The Many Faces of KBS Sidhu: The Khalsa Belongs to the Guru. I examine how Sidhu Ji placed the Khalsa inside an Indian national story and what followed when that framing was challenged.