Giani Sant Singh Maskeen (1934-2005) was born in 1934 at a place called Lak Marwat in District Bannu in present Pakistan. Giani ji was the only son of his parents and had lived at Alwar in Rajasthan for the last 57 years of his life. He was honoured by the Sikh community with the rare title of Panth Rattan for his services to mankind through the message of Gurbani. Panth Rattan Giani Sant Singh Maskeen sadly passed away on 18th February 2005 at approximately 8.00 AM I.S.T. due to a massive heart attack while attending a marriage function in Etawah in Uttar Pradesh, India.
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It is beyond doubt that Giani Sant Singh Maskeen was the most venerated and best known religious scholar among the Sikhs. This was due to the fact that he had in-depth and a broad knowledge of Gurmat and Gurbani; deep knowledge and understanding of comparative religions; and was armed with an excellent art of delivery of this vast knowledge database. He always fixed his annual programmes in advance and would stick to his schedules come what may. He had made a profound study of Sri Guru Granth Sahib and acquired in-depth knowledge of Vedas and Bhagat Banis as enshrined in Sri Guru Granth Sahib. Apart from Gurmukhi and Hindi he had a command over Farsi and often quoted Bhai Nand Lal Ji. During discourses he also used to quote from the religious texts of Hindu, Muslim and other world religions with all the useful relevant references.
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In his discourses Maskeen ji particularly used to mention Bhagat Banis as enshrined in Guru Granth Sahib, which has frequent of references to Rama, Krishna and other Hindu gods and goddesses, and often said that, to understand the message of Gurbani it is necessary to have basic knowledge of past Indian culture and traditions. However, some Sikhs scholars failed to understand his thoughtful analytical expressions and wrongly labelled him as pro-brahminical. The attitude of these ‘scholars’ who if they continue to spread these wrong notions, could raise questions about the authenticity of Bhagat Bani, or about references to Hinduism and Islam in the Guru Granth Sahib. It is felt that if these critics had their way, they may raise voices for removal of the name of Ram, Allah, Rahim, etc from the Guru Granth Sahib. It just goes to show how little these "academics" realise the uniqueness of Guru Granth Sahib and the universality of its message for all of mankind right across the globe.
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