First Experience hearing Gurbani

I studied a great deal about sikhism for almost a year before I began to look at Gurbani words beyond a few I had run across.

It was around ten months after the vision that made me become a regular at the Sikh Gurdwara that I decided I would begin to learn how to read Gurmukhi myself. One reason for this is that I had learned that the Sikhs believe that even making the sounds of the Gurbani words can transform a person. It is said to stimulate meridians in the roof of the mouth, and these subsequently activate hormonal secretion by the hypothalamus and pituitary glands. That was explained by Yogi Bhajan and I read it in lectures of his that are posted online at www.sikhnet.com. On a less scientific level it is said that even just hearing Gurbani has the power to change a person.

Now I have to say, with my scientific background, this would have sounded like nonsense to me, and to my Western mind it still "sounds" like metaphysical nonsense. But my experiences have taken me beyond what I can understand with science or Western thinking. And I believe my experiences most of all. These things would seem like nonsense to me, if not for the fact that the very first exposure I had to Gurbani had set me to tears of joy immediately. My first words as the music began and my tears began to flow, were "This music is about happiness that I have never known in this lifetime on this Earth." Then within minutes, the Gurbani chanting brought great bliss to me. By the third chant, a great compassion for the suffering of others - even people who were very difficult to be around - had been unleashed inside me, and that never did go away. All of that happened during a massage March 23, 2004. It was that sudden change in me produced just by hearing Snatam Kaur's "Shanti" CD during that massage that led me to go to the Sikh Gurdwara, for when I went to buy that CD I was told that Snatam Kaur lived here in Eugene, which shocked and thrilled and scared me, and I wanted to talk to her about what had happened to me. Such remarkable changes had never happened to me in my life before this time and while I was happier than ever, I was also very mystified about it, and frankly felt beside myself. My best friends were mystified too, since none of us were practicing any religious paths until this happened to me, and suddenly I seemed to be a quite different person in some ways.

. Months later as I studied everything I could find about such things, I came to the conclusion that hearing the Shanti CD had opened my heart chakra. As I expressed it to Snatam one time a year later, the Gurbani Chanting on her Shanti CD had "blasted open my heart chakra." Snatam smiled when I said that to her.