Path
The reading of the Guru Granth Sahib, sometimes continuously from beginning to end.
Structured reading of the Guru Granth Sahib. A hukamnama, read after the volume is opened without preselection, is received daily as guidance. An Akhand Path is an unbroken relay reading of the whole scripture over about forty-eight hours, arranged for occasions from weddings to bereavements; a Sehaj Path spreads the reading over days or weeks at a family's pace. Sukhmani Sahib, a long composition centered on peace, is often read for someone ill or troubled.
Path is reading the scripture, and it ranges from a person reading a passage at home to a complete reading of the whole Guru Granth Sahib.
A complete reading done continuously, with readers taking turns so the reading never stops, takes about forty-eight hours and is arranged to mark a death, a wedding, a move or an anniversary. A slower complete reading spread over a longer period is also common.
Arranging one is understood as an act done for the person or occasion it is arranged for, which is why families organise them at exactly the moments other traditions hold services.
Does it have a text?
The text is the Guru Granth Sahib, in Gurmukhi, and this site publishes none of it. Sukhmani Sahib, the composition most often read at illness and death, has its own page here explaining the same obstacle.
When it comes up
Other forms of prayer in Sikh
- Nitnem — The set daily prayers of Sikh practice, recited morning, evening and before sleep.
- Naam simran — Remembrance of the divine name, repeated aloud or in the breath.
- Ardas — The congregational petition that closes every Sikh service and marks every undertaking.
- Sikh kirtan — The sung scripture that occupies most of a Sikh service.
- Langar and seva — The free kitchen and the service around it, treated as devotional acts.
This page describes a practice. It does not tell you how to perform it, or whether you should. Practice varies by region, community and household far more than a page like this can carry, and nobody credentialed in the tradition has signed anything here. The full dossier names its sources.