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.

Favorites (1) Naanak Nadaree Karamee Daat

nwnk ndrI krmI dwq

Gurbani is the name we give for words written by the Sikh Gurus. Bani means "word" and the "Gur" prefix makes it mean "Words of the Guru."

Gurmukhi is the name given to the written script form of this language. The language itself is an older form of Punjabi (from Nothern India) which was in use 300 to 500 years ago. The first Sikh Guru, Guru Naanak, began doing a great deal of inspired and inspirational singing and teaching around the year 1500, when he was near the age of 30.

My memory is not terribly clear about the order in which I discovered my favorite lines or phrases of Gurbani that really moved me or which I related to immediately. Some of them I do remember very well and what order they came in. I do know that the first phrase I remember really resonating with was this one;

nwnk ndrI krmI dwq

The transliteration for this phrase is "Naanak nadaree karamee daat." Naanak is the first Sikh Guru. Nadaree means "Gracious or merciful Glance (of God). Karamee is a word for action, for the doing of something, and Daat means gifts. In the Guru, "Gifts" usually mean great gifts- great blessings. So this phrase means something like this: "Naanak says" that through the merciful glance (of God) great gifts are given."

This particular line - and also the URL name of my blog - occurs in JapJi - the morning "prayer" by Guru Naanak, which is commonly called "The Song of the Soul." I am not sure if I encountered it first in JapJi, but I think probably I found it somewhere else first during the course of my solitary studies of Sikhism online.

The very first time I heard this line it felt precisely like a description or explanation of my own experiences with Sikhism. By the time I came across this line, which must have been some months after all this started; I was experiencing the tearful bliss regularly during my meditation and while listening to Gurbani Kirtan (chanting). I was at peace inside myself like I had never been before. There were challenges and some tumultuous feelings in my outer life, but inside none of that changed the immense happiness I could experience almost anytime I listened to Gurbani being sung or read.

I felt then and I still feel that I had done little to deserve what had happened to me, yet this compassion had been implanted in me and I had been brought to this very joyful sikh path all seemingly by a lucky "accident" of someone happening to play that Shanti CD during my massage. So to me, it truly was as though the "Gracious glance of God" had been cast my way, and I then had the visions and came to the Sikh Gurdwara. My entire life was changed by those events and I had not even been seeking a spiritual path before all this happened. I still feel that this line more than any other describes the great good fortune that came my way.

Recently - only a few months ago, I took a hukam and in that hukam there was a line that said, "You reached down with Your long arm and pulled me up from the suffering of my life." I do not have the exact words nor the Gurmukhi for this - but I cried as I read this because it again describes the feelings I have about the way I came to this path. I had a beautiful vision relating to this the next day in my meditation, in which I saw myself grasped by this strong arm and pulled up and out of this life. I clasped my arms around the legs of this Gur/Savior, and held tightly while crying with gratitude. I remember asking if I could stay where I was and not return to my life on Earth, and was told I was to return and yet that I would always remain at the Guru's feet as I was at that moment. This brought a great wave of peace to me.

The link immediately below takes you to a very beautiful page about Sikh thoughts and perspectives about "Grace" - how it is obtained, and many lines of Gurbani are quoted and translated on that page. I found it by googling "Nadaree."

IF you want greater insight about this "Merciful Glance of God" this page will help a lot!

http://www.gurbani.org/webart154.htm

Explanation of the Name of my Blog

The title of this blog is a run-together set of Gurmukhi words, namely;

mn jIqY jg jIq

The transliteration for this Gurmukhi expression is "Man Jeetai Jag Jeet."

This phrase basically means that if you win mastery over your mind, the world of this life shall also be mastered. This is very much an Eastern concept. This particular phrase is of Sikh origin. In this view, we can not directly experience ourselves as expressions of the One Divinity unless and until we can learn to quiet our minds and learn to no longer be caught up with human desires. Nonattachment is another, more common name for this goal. In this view as well as in Buddhism, attachments are the source of all human suffering. Essentially attachment means to want things to be different than they are at the moment. It means to want things that feel good or make us happy to last longer and for things we do not enjoy to end sooner. Learning to conquer such desires and learning to accept and appreciate everything that comes is the pathway intended here.

This Gurmukhi phrase comes from the most fundamental of Sikh "prayers" - called "JapJi." JapJi is to be recited first thing every morning. It is a 20 minute long recitation written by the first of the Sikh Gurus, Guru Naanak. "Jap" means to meditate and reflect upon while "Ji" means "Soul." So the name "JapJi" is an exhortation to meditate over this 20 minute recitation.

A good description of what JapJi is all about would take some serious concentrated effort, for it progresses through several phases in its 40 "stanzas." Briefly though, JapJi could be said to be about how to live a spiritual life and tells about stages and kinds of spiritual attainment. It is also an expansive treatise on the unlimited, indescribable and undefinable, infinite qualities of the (One and only) Creative Divine aspect of the universe. Most of all, JapJi sings the praises of this Creative Divinity, of which we are ourselves expressions or manifestations. In the west we call this "God"and tend to personify it as an entity or being. In the East there are many words that when translated into English are written as "God." I might at some later time, write a separate blog entry listing many such words and discussing them.