AKHAND PATH (akhand = uninterrupted, without break; path = reading) is nonstop, continuous recital of the Guru Granth Sahib from beginning to end. Such a recital must be completed within 48 hours. The entire Holy Volume, 1430 large pages, is read through in a continuous ceremony. This reading must go on day and night, without a moment\'s intermission.
Anoop Singh (1910 - 1989) was a lawyer by profession, hailing from the North-West Frontier Province of undivided Punjab. A lover of every good thing in life, he came to writing poetry seriously very late in life but his output compensated his late-coming both quantitatively and qualitatively. The most striking feature of his verse is his thought-content. Evidently, he owes this to his age; maturity of outlook on life, wealth of experience, and the asset of erudition that he gathered over the years. An admirer of Saadi and Hafiz, Meer and Ghalib, Iqbal and Faiz, he was equally knowledgeable about the Vedas and the Upanishads, the Ramayana and the Mahabharata.
for
BACHITTAR SINGH, BHAI (d. 1921), was a granthi (officiant) at the gurdwara in Chakk No. 85 Dalla Chanda Singhvala in Sheikhupura, in the newly colonized irrigation district in western Punjab. Nothing is known about his parentage or the date and place of his birth. He had arrived at the village in the company of a Nanga sadhu as a boy of 10 or 12 years and had stayed on in the local gurdwara. He had learnt to read Gurmukhi and the holy text from the granthi whom he replaced after the latter had left.
BIHANGAM, from Sanskrit vihang which means a bird, is a term applied to wandering ascetics who lead a life of complete detachment. A Biharigam is a celebate who lives in poverty renouncing all worldly ties and follows the path of holiness. In the Hindu tradition, he, abjuring religious dogma, worships Siva, Rama and other incarnations. Bihangams, among Sikhs, are likewise holy men who do not marry and who shun worldly ambition and temptation. The object of their devotion is the One Supreme Being.
- 1
- 2
