(RNS) — In the Sikhi tradition, 10 revered leaders established aspects of the faith over two-and-a-half centuries. Guru Gobind Singh, the 10th in the lineage, installed the final, eternal guide in the Guru Granth Sahib, the essential scripture to almost 30 million Sikhs worldwide.
In time for the 350th anniversary of Guru Gobind Singh’s coronation, Harinder Singh, a senior fellow at the Sikh Research Institute, explores the life of the last Guru in his book “Guru Gobind Singh Sahib: Life, Vision & Wisdom,” released late last year. Working with a calligrapher and graphic designer, Harinder Singh combines poetic text, original art and a contemporary translation of original manuscripts and secondary texts written by the Guru’s court poets — Bhai Nand Lal Goya in Persian, and Chandra Sain Sainapati in Braj and old Punjabi.
Harinder Singh also situates the Tenth Guru as “the first diaspora guru,” he said in a January interview. Born outside of Punjab and shaped by civilizations across South Asia, the Guru’s life modeled how to meet cultural conflict “not with otherness, but with oneness.”
The interview has been edited for lengt …