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Guru Arjan's numerous works in the Adi Granth offer clues about his teachings. His most important work is Sukhmani (‘The Pearl of Peace’ or ‘Peace of Mind’), a lengthy composition that focuses on the crucial significance of the Divine Name in a person's quest for liberation. This chapter not only examines Guru Arjan's teachings by highlighting those aspects of his teachings which are remarkably consistent with the doctrinal pattern set by Guru Nanak but also examines the different shades of emphasis in those of his works which are characteristically his own. In the analysis, the chapter considers W.H. McLeod's Guru Nanak and the Sikh Religion in which he assumes that Guru Nanak's writings bear witness to his experience of Akal Purakh. McLeod also argues that a coherent doctrinal pattern may be discerned in Guru Nanak's works. This chapter also discusses Guru Arjan's views on the nature of ultimate reality, the cosmos, human nature and the human being, divine revelation, and the discipline of the Sikh Panth.

This introductory chapter places the book within the context of the widening area of Sikh studies, including on the Internet. It also includes brief discussions about the content of the essays in the book which go beyond the mistaken notion that Sikhism provides a synthesis of Hindu and Muslim ideals—a notion that has been completely abandoned in most of recent scholarly works. Sikh Studies is no longer ‘the forgotten tradition’ of the late 1970s and is becoming increasingly recognized in undergraduate programmes, and for being the benefactor of a growing number of endowed chairs in universities across North America. The author discusses how, after 1984—the turning point in the history of the Sikhs in the post-colonial and the post-modern world—the Sikhs of North America worked to provide their youth with university-level instruction in their religious and cultural tradition, and to make that tradition accessible to the wider non-Sikh community.

This chapter provides a backdrop for the entire study and lays down its foundation by addressing/defining the basic issues and concepts related to religious biographies. It not only explores the nature of religious biographies but also contrasts them with hagiographies. It discusses the approaches adopted by scholars like Frank E. Raynolds, Donald Capps, John Dominic Crossan, and W. H. McLeod. It also looks at the major trends in recent scholarship, in Sikh studies, and analyses the shift from the search for the historical figure to the current focus on memory, tradition, and representation. In reconstructing this religious biography, a multidisciplinary approach is used which encompasses insights from a variety of disciplines ranging from history to anthropology, sociology, and literary and textual studies. Before proceeding, the chapter defines certain terms and concepts such as ‘myth’, ‘culture’, tradition, and ‘hermeneutics’.