Giani Sant Singh Maskeen Jiਗਿਆਨੀ ਸੰਤ ਸਿੰਘ ਮਸਕੀਨ ਜੀ

Giani Sant Singh Maskeen Ji was a kathavachak: a teacher who explains Gurbani, the Sikh scripture, to a seated congregation, verse by verse and idea by idea. For almost fifty years his katha filled gurdwaras across India and the diaspora, and his daily television discourses carried the Guru Granth Sahib into homes that had never heard a scholar speak in such simple words.

Early life: from Lakki Marwat to Alwar

Sant Singh was born in 1934 at Lakki Marwat, in the Bannu district of the North West Frontier, now in Pakistan. He was the only son of Sardar Kartar Singh and Mata Ram Kaur. He began his schooling at the Khalsa School and went on to Government High School, studying in Urdu and Persian.

In 1947, when Sant Singh was about twelve, Partition tore through Punjab. The family left its home and, like lakhs of other Sikh families, travelled east to safety, settling at Alwar in Rajasthan. The move ended his formal schooling: the language of instruction changed, money was short, and the boy worked for a time in a factory. When his father died in 1952, the loss turned him inward, and he began to spend his days learning Gurbani from scholars and holy men wherever he could find them.

The making of a kathavachak

Maskeen Ji built his learning the slow way. With little money, he walked long distances to reach congregations in villages and towns, speaking on Gurmat, the Guru's teaching, and accepting whatever the sangat offered. Over years of study he gained a command of Punjabi, Hindi, Urdu, Persian and Arabic, and a deep knowledge not only of the Guru Granth Sahib but of the Vedas and the scriptures of other faiths, which he could quote in a discourse to illuminate a point.

In 1958 he married Bibi Sunder Kaur, and Alwar remained his home for the rest of his life, 57 years in all. There he established a meditation centre and a Khalsa School, and for four decades he personally supervised an annual Gurmat Samagam at Alwar on 1, 2 and 3 March, where scholars, kirtan jathas and thousands of devotees gathered and langar was served to all for three days.

Katha in simple words

What set Maskeen Ji apart was his method. He would take one idea and open it slowly, layer by layer, drawing examples from daily life until the most difficult teaching felt obvious. He began a topic and stayed with it, so a farmer and a professor could follow the same discourse. Listeners said he lived what he preached: simple white clothes, a black turban, meals from the langar, and a night spent at the gurdwara rather than in comfort.

Having once promised a high priest that he would come to Amritsar to perform katha every year at Diwali, he kept that promise for 25 years. In 1999, during the celebrations of 300 years of the Khalsa, the Jathedar of the Akal Takht invited him to perform katha at Sri Harmandir Sahib. Maskeen Ji was in the United States recovering from a heart problem, and against his doctors' advice he travelled to Amritsar and kept the engagement.

His reach kept growing. His discourses on the national television network were beamed across the world, his audio cassettes and CDs travelled further still, and his katha tours took him to the USA, the UK, Canada, the Middle East, Thailand and Singapore, where his audiences included many who were not Sikhs.

What did Maskeen Ji write?

Maskeen Ji wrote more than a dozen books in which his spoken teaching took written form. Among the best known are Guru Chintan, Ras Dhara, Jiwan Jhalkian, Aise Jan Virle Sansare, Brahm Gyan, Gyan Da Saagar, Amrit Manthan, Ratnagar and Shabad Guru.

He also spoke plainly about the management of gurdwaras, and in his last years wrote on how gurdwara committees should be formed and donations honestly used. His willingness to criticise wrongdoing in religious institutions won him admiration and opposition, but he stayed away from party politics all his life.

Honours: the Panth Rattan

For his services to humanity through the message of Gurbani, Maskeen Ji was honoured in his lifetime with the rare title of Panth Rattan, jewel of the Panth. After his death, the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee honoured him further with the Gurmat Vidya Martand award and the Bhai Gurdas Award, presented posthumously at his bhog ceremony.

Death and legacy

Maskeen Ji died suddenly on 18 February 2005. He was at Etawah in Uttar Pradesh for a marriage function when a massive heart attack took his life at the age of 70.

His passing left a space that Sikh preaching has rarely filled since. Recordings of his katha are still heard daily in homes and gurdwaras, and later kathavachaks, including Bhai Pinderpal Singh, who took up the katha at Gurdwara Manji Sahib in Amritsar after him, are measured against the standard he set: scholarship worn lightly, and the Guru's word explained so that no listener is left behind.