Guru Granth Sahib And Guru Panth

Shortly before his death in 1708, Guru Gobind Singh declared that the line of personal Gurus was ending and that Guruship would pass jointly to the scripture and to the community: the Guru Granth Sahib, the compiled and expanded scripture containing the writings of several Gurus and other saints, and the Guru Panth, the collective body of initiated Sikhs, particularly as represented in the Khalsa. This decision closed the office to any further individual claimant permanently, a deliberate structural choice distinguishing Sikhism's succession from traditions whose leadership offices remain open indefinitely.

The Guru Granth Sahib is accordingly treated with the reverence due a living Guru: installed on a raised platform in every gurdwara, ceremonially opened each morning and closed at night, and consulted for guidance by opening it at random for a reading, a practice called vak lao. No individual since 1708 has been accepted by mainstream Sikh institutions as a personal successor Guru, though various leaders and movements within the wider Sikh community have at times used guru-like titles for teachers or heads of specific orders; these are understood within Sikhism as honorific or institutional usages, categorically distinct from the closed line of the ten Gurus.