Opening the Word: Dr. Surinder Singh Kohli and Gurbani in English

The ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ is written in ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ, a script that most of the world cannot read. For a global audience, the meaning of the ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ must travel through a translator. Dr. Surinder Singh Kohli was one of the most active academic interpreters who did this work in English (Kohli n.d.).

This course is about Kohli and his works. We do not reproduce his texts. Instead we ask how he made scripture reachable, what themes he chose to highlight, and what a reader gains and risks when meeting the ਸ਼ਬਦ through English prose.

Kohli's best-known effort is the multi-volume series Guru Granth Sahib Speaks, which presents the scripture's teaching topic by topic. Alongside it he produced reference and study works on the same source (Kohli n.d.).

The wider field of Sikh studies frames why such bridges are needed: scripture-centred faith requires careful, honest interpretation when it crosses languages (Singh and Fenech 2014).

The ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ is arranged largely by musical measure. A new reader meeting it for the first time can find this order hard to follow. Kohli's series Guru Granth Sahib Speaks takes a different path: it gathers the teaching of the ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ under named subjects, so a reader can study one theme at a time (Kohli n.d.).

This is a translator's editorial choice. Reading by theme helps a beginner see a coherent picture of one idea. It also carries a cost: the reader sees the topic pulled out of its musical and poetic setting. A good course keeps both views in mind.

Kohli's wider scholarship, such as his close study of the text, shows that the thematic series rests on careful reading rather than casual summary (Kohli n.d.). The reference field treats such organizing work as a normal and useful part of making scripture accessible (Singh and Fenech 2014).

Two ideas sit at the heart of Sikh theology, and both run through Kohli's expositions. The first is ਨਾਮ, the divine Name. The second is ਹੁਕਮ, the divine Order or Will. In English study these terms are easy to flatten, so a careful interpreter explains them with care (Kohli n.d.).

When Kohli writes about the Name, he connects it to ਸਿਮਰਨ, the loving remembrance that the Gurus call the path to closeness with the Creator. He presents this not as a magic word but as a way of living turned toward the divine.

When he treats the Order, he describes how everything moves within a Will that the human mind cannot fully measure. The believer's task is to accept and align with that Will rather than resist it.

These themes are widely recognized as central to Sikh thought in the academic literature (Singh and Fenech 2014).

The first volume of Guru Granth Sahib Speaks takes up death and the afterlife (Kohli n.d.). This is a fitting place to see Kohli's method at work, because death is a subject every reader meets and every tradition must address.

In the ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ, death is not the end of meaning. Kohli's exposition gathers the scripture's teaching that life and death both rest within the divine ਹੁਕਮ, and that the goal is ਮੁਕਤੀ, release from the cycle of coming and going.

For the English reader, the value of such a volume is that it collects a difficult, scattered theme into one place and explains it in plain words. We study how Kohli does this without reducing the teaching to a slogan.

The reference field confirms that liberation and the soul's destiny are long-standing concerns of Sikh scripture and scholarship (Singh and Fenech 2014).

No translation is neutral. Every time a word like ਨਾਮ or ਹੁਕਮ is turned into English, the translator chooses one shade of meaning and leaves others behind. Studying Kohli means studying these choices honestly (Kohli n.d.).

Some terms have no single English match. This is why this course keeps key Sikh terms in ਗੁਰਮੁਖੀ and explains them, rather than replacing them with a one-word English label. Kohli's own reference work, his dictionary of mythological references, shows how much background a reader needs to grasp a single allusion in the ਸ਼ਬਦ (Kohli n.d.).

Recognizing these limits is itself a mark of good scholarship, and the academic field treats translation as an interpretive act rather than a simple swap of words (Singh and Fenech 2014).

Kohli was one of many scholars who worked to bring the ਗੁਰਬਾਣੀ to a wider readership. To understand his place, we set his works beside the broader field of Sikh studies, which has grown into a recognized academic discipline (Singh and Fenech 2014).

His contribution has a clear shape: he made scripture usable for the English reader through thematic volumes, study works, and reference tools (Kohli n.d.). His philosophy writing tied these themes into a connected picture of Sikh thought (Kohli n.d.).

We close by weighing the approach. Topical study in translation is a doorway, not the whole house. It invites the reader in; it does not replace meeting the ਗੁਰੂ ਗ੍ਰੰਥ ਸਾਹਿਬ in its own form and music.

Read this way, Kohli's legacy is best honoured by using his bridges to walk toward the scripture itself.