Are we becoming too casual about Gutke, Pothian and books containing Gurbani being sold on Amazon?
I’ve been thinking about this for a while and honestly it doesn’t sit right with me.
I keep seeing Gutke, Pothian and books containing full Shabads/Gurbani being sold on Amazon and other websites just like normal books.
For us, Gurbani is not just another book.
Even at home, if we have a Gutka Sahib or Pothi Sahib, we don’t just throw it on a bookshelf with random books. We keep it in a clean and respectful place, usually in a separate cupboard or properly covered. There is a certain satkaar we try to maintain.
So my question is, what happens when these are being stored in Amazon warehouses?
Are they sitting in bins with shoes, cosmetics, kitchen items and everything else? Are boxes put on the floor? What happens when someone returns one? What happens if a copy gets damaged? Does it just go into a damaged-goods pile or get thrown away like any other book?
I genuinely don’t know, and that is exactly what worries me.
I’m not saying Gurbani should be difficult to access. Quite the opposite. Anyone who wants to read Gurbani should be able to.
But surely there has to be a respectful way of distributing it.
There is a difference between a normal Sikh history book mentioning a few lines of Gurbani and a Gutka Sahib, Pothi Sahib, Nitnem, Sukhmani Sahib or a book printing full Shabads.
At some point we have to ask ourselves whether we are becoming too casual about this simply because online shopping is convenient.
If we ourselves would never put a Gutka Sahib on the floor or mix it with random household items, then why are we okay with sending it through a warehouse system where we have absolutely no idea how it is being handled?
Maybe Amazon and other companies simply don’t understand. I don’t expect warehouse workers to automatically know Sikh maryada.
But then maybe we need to tell them.
I’m genuinely interested to hear what other Sikhs think about this.