Columnists

The Ballad of Spring
Part I

SARBPREET SINGH

Even as nature blossoms forth, reflect upon His Name and let spirituality bloom
This human form is your good fortune; use it to become one with the Lord
As the Three Worlds bloom, so does your entire being, drenched in His Name
Be one with the Guru and it’ll erase all evil and sin from your heart
O Nanak! Reflect on His Name and break the cycle of rebirth ||1||

Seek the support of the Lord to banish the Five great sins
He encourages you to contemplate his Name and stands with you
All sorrow and illness is erased and you are rejuvenated
Contemplate Him, day and night and you shall become immortal
Merge again, O Nanak, with Him who brought you forth ||2||

Where did we come from? Where do we dwell and where do we go?
All life is His and none can comprehend His greatness
Those who speak of Him, dwell upon Him and listen to His praises are blessed
He is unfathomable and mysterious; there is none like Him
Nanak proclaims the truth, exactly as he has comprehended it ||3||1|| [Guru Arjan, Basant ki Vaar]

In the world of Gurmat Sangeet (Sikh Sacred Music), particularly at Sri Harmandar Sahib, there is an enduring tradition in place, according to which it is customary to sing Raag Basant, Bahar and their variants from Magh di Sangrand, which occurs mid-January, to Holla Mohalla, which occurs around mid-March.

Even the most blasé of kirtaniyas make it a point to begin their kirtan with a shabad in one of the raags associated with Spring. The singing of shabads is interspersed with the singing of the three paurris of the magnificent Basant ki Vaar, which appears above in translation.

My first encounter with this tradition was in early 1994 when we used to live in New Jersey. Bhai Gurmej Singh, then Hazuri Raagi at Harmandar Sahib was visiting the Bridgewater Gurdwara. It was a crisp Sunday morning in the middle of winter. Bhai Sahib, accompanied by young Amarjit Singh on harmonium and the late Bhai Iqbal Singh on tabla, started with a leisurely mangla charan (Invocation) in Raag Basant. This was followed by a most magnificent rendition of the shabad, dekh phool phool phuley in Basant, set to ik-taal. [See below for recording.]

I remember being totally mesmerized by his stately, deeply emotional and yet somehow totally detached singing of the shabad.

It was followed by the singing of the first paurri of the Basant ki Vaar.

My friend Charanjit Singh, who plays the sitar and is also an aficionado of gurmat sangeet, was similarly moved. I remember that we were both completely charged up and could not rest until we had hacked out the bundish (melody) on the harmonium at the conclusion of the diwan.

The rendition was in the modern variant of Raag Basant, which derives from the thaat (family of melodies or scales) known as Purvi. Afterwards, I went up to Bhai Sahib and asked him about what he sang, particularly the Vaar.

Until then I had only heard of the Asa di Vaar; Basant ki Vaar was something quite new!

Bhai Sahib was kind enough to explain the traditions associated with Raag Basant to me!

That winter was a special one for my family and I in many ways. We were expecting our first child; Mehr Kaur was to be born several months after that memorable day, when Bhai Gurmej Singh so mesmerized the sangat with his rendition in Raag Basant.

Unbeknownst to him, he was imparting the precious gift of gurmat sangeet to this yet unborn child. Bhai Sahib stayed at Bridgewater for several weeks and every shabad he sang, both in the contemporary variant of Basant and a more archaic form known as Basant Hindol (which is unique to the gurmat sangeet tradition), left a deep impression on all of us. I vividly remember my wife telling me how our unborn daughter palpably responded each time Bhai Sahib sang, most notably and vigorously during an evening diwan (congregation) when Bhai Sahib sang the shabad, ghol ghumai lalna, in Raag Tukhari.

The years passed. We moved from New Jersey to the Boston area. Our lives changed profoundly, but one thing that remained constant was an eager expectation of the advent of the month of Magh each year, which signalled the arrival of Basant.

Gurmat sangeet had already become an important part of our lives in New Jersey, but in Boston, the Guru blessed us with a like minded sangat and in a short time, I was surrounded by a band of young children, who were my daughter Mehr’s age or slightly older, all willing and eager sponges who enthusiastically embraced this new and apparently slightly scary ‘Uncle’ and his uncompromising attachment to traditional Sikh music.

The enthusiasm of these young children was the genesis of the Gurmat Sangeet Project, which in its own humble way has been a part of the global effort to preserve and propagate the most precious gift that our Gurus have bestowed upon us!

Every year, as January approached, my little band would clamor for new shabads in the Basant tradition and until Hola Mohalla, we would all learn and sing shabads in the various variants of Basant, Bahar, Basant Bahar, Hindol, Basant Hindol, Sohni and other raags associated with Spring.

In 2003, we decided to host a special Kirtan Darbar dedicated to the Basant tradition. Our young kirtaniye started to polish and enhance their Basant repertoire and I started casting about for accomplished kIrtaniye to invite.

Our very first Gurnat Sangeet Darbar thus came about in March 2003.

All our young kirtaniye sang with great enthusiasm and aplomb; we were particularly fortunate to be able to invite Bhai Sarbjit Singh Rangila (Durg wale) and Bhai Surjt Singh (Long Island wale) to the event. Both are formidable kirtaniye in their own right, having spent an lifetime learning at the feet of great masters, who have bestowed upon them a veritable treasure trove of puraatan (ancient, traditional) gurmat sangeet compositions.

Another memorable moment from that, our first Darbar, was the presence and participation of Warren Senders, a fine Boston-based Hindustani Classical singer, who had studied with Pandit Bhimsen Joshi of the Kirana Khayal Gharana (a prominent school in the North Indian Classical tradition), and more notably with Pandit Shriram Devasthali of the Gwalior Khayal Gharana.

Warren, who is a good friend, was also my vocal ustaad (teacher) at that time. I had eagerly sought him out after we moved to Boston from New Jersey and he had graciously accepted me as his student. Unlike most old-school ustaads of the Hindustani Classical tradition, whose formal demeanor and frosty inapproachability would do an English nobleman proud, Warren had always been a warm, approachable and kind teacher.

I remember him asking me if there was anything particular I wanted to learn, when I first stared with him. In the throes of Basant fever, I naturally blurted out ‘Basant’, eliciting a ‘Wah!’ (an expression of approval, even delight).

Now, I had nominally learned a composition in Basant from my first ustaad, Bhai Nazar Singh, and had hacked out a few old renditions that I had picked up from recordings that I had heard, on the harmonium, but I was blissfully unaware of the intricacies and subtleties of this magnificent raag.

Warren introduced me to the raag and perhaps after he had got my intonation from appalling to somewhat passable (but perhaps I am flattering myself here, having worn him down through my enthusiasm for Basant), he finally introduced me to the canonical composition in Basant, phagwa brij dekhan ko chalo ri, which has been immortalized by innumerable classical musicians, most notably the incomparable Khan Sahib Abdul Karim Khan of the Kirana tradition.

As the Basant Darbar of 2013 was starting to take shape, I was struck by an idea. During one of my lessons, I asked Warren if he would be open to participating in the event. Warren, being Warren, responded with great enthusiasm, but expressed some doubts bout his ability to participate as he really did not have a gurmat sangeet repertoire, not having been exposed to the tradition at all.

I brought him several sloks (short hymns) from gurbani and explained to him that while the Indian Classical and Gurmat Sangeet traditions were somewhat different, they shared common underpinnings and had enjoyed considerable cross fertilization over the centuries.

We settled on the shlok, nanak tina basant hai, and Warren was on board!

Recordings from the event, that include beautiful renditions by Warren Senders, Bhai Surjit Singh and Bhai Sarbjit Singh Rangila, can be found below.

Our young kirtaniye sang too with great gusto, including eight-year old Mehr Kaur, who had known Basant her entire young life.

Over the years, from that humble beginning, we have had numerous Basant-focused Gurmat Sangeet Darbars in Boston. They have been graced by some of the most wonderful kirtaaniye in the panth.

Gyani Dyal Singh, Bhai Dilbagh Singh Gulbagh Singh, Bhai Sajjan Singh, Professor Ranjit Singh, Bibi Amarjit Kaur, Bhai Kanwarpal Singh (Dehradun), Bibi Guneet Kaur accompanied by a coupe of vanloads of brilliant young kirtaniye from Toronto, Bibi Gurleen Kaur and many more!

To hear dekh phool phool phuley, please CLICK here.

To hear shabads from the Boston Basant Samagam, please CLICK here.

Continued tomorrow …..

March 8, 2014

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