What are the hymns about in the guru granth sahib?

Answer 1

Guru Granth Sahib contains 5894 hymns. The number of stanzas according to Pincott{Frederic Pincott, "The Arrangement of the Hymns of the Adi Granth} is 15575. 974 hymns are written by the first Guru, 62 by the second Guru, 907 by the third, 679 by the fourth, 2218 by the fifth, and 115 by the ninth. Among the remaining 922 hymns of Bhagats, the highest number of hymns (541) is by Kabir.

Music forms the basis of the classification of the hymns. Under each Rag, the hymns are arranged in the following order :

1. Chaupadas-hymns of four verses.

2. Ashtapadas-hymns of eight verses.

3. Long poems.

4. Chhants-Verses of six lines.

5. Short poems.

...Most of the hymns are about praising God , or teachings of the Guru's , "Kabir" being an exception , because he was not a Sikh but a man who believed in God and expressed it through poetical rhyme .Being born into a Muslim community , Kabir was capable of being objective from Islam & Islamic culture , this enabled him to identify classics of the human predicament in context to his acknowledgement of an immortal God , this and his humble observations endeared him to the Sikh Guru's.

This link is to YouTube , there is a Sikh prayer there , that has very clear and well thought out English subtitles .I couldn't find a good subtitled hymn , but basically Sikh "raagis" disciples of Sikhism who devote there lives to singing Sikh hymns , they can turn the most simplest prayer into a melody of most amazing harmony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AoEjmiga92Y&feature=related