SHRI/SIRI/SRI
Shri/Siri/Sri is the name of a mythical goddess of wealth. She is the wife of mythical god Vishnu. ‘Sri’ is goddess of wealth and fortune, hence it is also known as Lakshmi. Due to this, the Hindus worship (like mythical, semi-elephant semi-human deity, Ganesh, who is the son of Shiv and Parvari) this goddess before beginning any work; before entering a house; before starting a business and virtually before beginning ever thing.
The usage of the term Sri has become such an obsession with the Hindus that, now, they use it (without bothering for the meaning and/or significance of the term) as a title/prefix for each and every name because they believe that by using this term as a part of one’s name, one becomes ‘wealthy and fortunate’ through the blessing of Sri goddess. This has become synonym of the western title Mister and the French term Monsieur (Mr). [The original English title was Sir].
The Sikhs use Sirdaar (in Punjab; in Urdu and Hindi it is Sardaar) as a title for a Sikh. Since the times of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh, Sri is been used as title with the names of the Gurus (and even with the names of the Sikh cities, the Gurdwaras, the Sikh institutions etc.). It had been done because Darbar Sahib came under the control of Benaras and Haridwar trained Nirmala the Udasis priest who had been patronized by the Mishra (Brahmin Hindu) courtiers of Ranjit Singh and some other Hindu courtiers of the Sikh rulers. It has been on increase since 1980s, apparently under the influence of the impact of the religion of the ruling class.
In Guru Granth Sahib, Sri has been used with the Name of God in order to distinguish God from mythological Hindu gods referred to in Guru Granth Sahib (there are 350 million gods in Hindu mythology). But, nowadays, under the impact of the Hinduism, several Sikh clergy, ignorant leadership and simple writers too have begun using it like a mania, even without knowing the etymology of the term.
(Dr Harjinder Singh Dilgeer)