Guru Granth Sahib, an encyclopaedia in song. Compendium of philosophy in verse. Treasury of the music of saints. Mystical light joined to the material form by the thread of Word (shabd). Chart for the pathways to the mountain peak of highest realisation. Bringing together on the tongue (bani) that which might have been divided at the tower of Babel. Guide to social reformation. Clarion call to equality of all classes, races, religions — long before the word 'secular' came in vogue. Coffer containing secrets of yogis, Sufis, saints of all paths and ages—locked to the blind, open to hearts filled with devotion. The venerable Guru, the Word rendered legible to the discerning: Guru Granth Sahib. Adi Granth, the First Book, not in chronological time but because it is a vehicle of the First Truths that dawn when the supplicant approaches the throne of the Timeless Person, Akal Purukh, and 'by His Grace all one's exterior openings close, 'one's self is beautified, the light shines, and all the lotuses of consciousness come into full bloom.

The voices of thirty-six saints and servants of God sing the nearly six thousand songs as though a single choir in the cathedral of the universal mind. Spanning more than four centuries of exterior crises and simultaneously interior revelations, they all agree not only in their themes but even in words. Though they spoke languages as diverse as the Sanskrit of Jayadeva and Persian of Baba Farid, by some magic of the mystical unity of minds the languages merge and become just the Word (shabd), the sacred speech (bani).