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This week, Sikhs around the world are marking the anniversary of the compilation of the central Sikh scriptures. By the early 17th century, there were many verses said to have been written by the Sikh Gurus, but there was no way of being sure that they were actually their words. The fifth Guru, Guru Arjan Dev Ji, set himself a task. He wanted to ensure that Sikhs knew which verses were true and which were fakes, and so he set about bringing them all together into a single volume. His disciples collected all the verses said to have been written by the 4 previous Gurus, along with compositions from other spiritual people, regardless of their religious backgrounds. The Guru went through each of them, studying them carefully, and approving those which resonated with Sikh teachings.

In late August 1604, the approved verses were compiled into the Adi Granth, or the ‘First Book’. Once completed, the Guru placed the scriptures where he would normally rest and he rested on the floor below it, showing his reverence for the written word.

About a century later, when the 10th Sikh Guru was nearing his end, he chose the Sikh scriptures as his successor. The renamed Guru Granth Sahib became the 11th and eternal Guru of the faith. They continue to be treated with the greatest of reverence. In gurdwaras, the Guru Granth Sahib has its own throne for the daytime and a bed where it is put to rest in the evenings. In fact, under Indian law, the scriptures are considered to be a legal person with rights of their own.

The printed word is something that many of us find mesmerising. Scrolling through a website is one thing, whilst reading a physical book is a different experience entirely. The feel of the paper, the fixed permanency of the words, even the act of turning over a page, all give a sense of ceremony to reading. Bookshops and libraries are places of hushed silence, of reverence at the centuries of knowledge available to us in the tomes surrounding us.

At a time when fake news is rife and AI is enabling misinformation to go further than before, authenticity is something that we place great value upon. It was only a few weeks’ ago that misinformation led to riots spreading across the country, with a library in Liverpool being torched in the process.

It's very easy for us to get lost into our smartphones and doomscroll for hours upon end. Knowledge is invaluable, but having information which has a stamp of approval helps reassure us that what we are looking at is true, not fake. If we want to be sure that what we’re reading is real, maybe it’s worth putting the phone down and questioning the authenticity of what we are looking at.

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