This is the Reverence Edition of Bhai Vir Singh Ji's writing.
The English translations of Bhai Sahib's works were prepared for a general readership, and they name the Guru Sahibs the way English prose names any figure of history: “Guru Nanak”, “the Guru said”, “the Guru’s house”. Nothing is wrong in that English. But it is not the register a Sikh keeps when speaking of the Guru Sahibs.
In Punjabi, reverence is carried in the grammar itself: the honorific plural, the word Ji, the way a sentence bows before it says anything at all. English has no such built in form, so it must be supplied by hand. That is all this edition does.
In these pages the Guru Sahibs are named in full and with Ji: Guru Nanak Dev Ji, Guru Angad Dev Ji, Guru Amar Das Ji, Guru Ram Das Ji, Guru Arjan Dev Ji, Guru Hargobind Sahib Ji, Guru Har Rai Ji, Guru Har Krishan Ji, Guru Tegh Bahadur Ji, Guru Gobind Singh Ji. Where the translation said only “the Guru”, this edition says Guru Ji. The Sri Guru Granth Sahib Ji is named in full. Gursikhs, Bhagats and the Guru Sahibs’ families are given their Ji as well, such as Bhai Mardana Ji, Bhai Lalo Ji, Mata Tripta Ji and Bhai Gurdas Ji.
Reverence is applied by referent, not by matching words. The same word can name the Guru in one line and something ordinary in the next, so the sense of each sentence decides the form. Compounds that are ordinary English, such as Guruship, Gurdwara and Guru-disciples, are left as Bhai Sahib’s translators wrote them.
Nothing else has been altered. Not one sentence of Bhai Vir Singh Ji’s telling has been added to, shortened, softened or explained away. The original edition of every book remains on the shelf beside this one, unchanged, for anyone who wishes to read the translation exactly as it was published.
The Guru Sahibs were themselves the very epitome of humility, and asked for nothing. The Ji is not for their sake. It is for ours, so that the tongue and the mind keep the posture the heart already holds.
ਭੁੱਲਾਂ-ਚੁੱਕਾਂ ਦੀ ਖਿਮਾ ਬਖਸਿਓ।