Columnists

My Guru & I:
Getting to know You

by MANJYOT KAUR

This is the seventh in a series of articles we have asked a wide variety of personages to pen in commemoration of the Tercentenary (1708-2008) of the investiture of Guru Granth Sahib as our eternal Guide and Teacher.

 

The terms by which I often think about my Guru are not Father, Mother, Husband, or even Friend and Lover. While undeniably beautiful and more easily graspable by us mere mortals, these characterizations frequently seem a bit too anthropomorphic to me.

Instead, contemplating the Guru as a Divine Place - a True Abode of perpetual sanctuary, safety, shelter and support - greatly appeals to my mind and heart.

Many words corresponding to this concept can be found in Gurbani, such as adhaar, saran and duaar. They convey to me the unconditional acceptance and comforting succor my soul constantly craves, the feeling the poet Robert Frost evoked when he wrote, "Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in".

I came upon this way of relating to the Guru quite early along my path of becoming a Sikh, when I started to familiarize myself with the banis of nitnem.

My initial exposure to doing paatth came not through Japji Sahib, as might be expected, but Rehraas Sahib, the bani recited at dusk, my favorite time of the day, customarily one of homecoming and rest.

Lines like Ham keeray kiram satgur sarnaaee kar daiaa naam pargaas ("I am an insect, a worm; O True Guru, I seek Your Sanctuary, please be merciful and bless me with the Light of Naam") and Sagal duaar kau chhaadh kai, gaiho tuhaaro duaar ("I have abandoned all other doors/shelters and have come to Your Door") leapt off the page the very first time I encountered them and deeply penetrated my heart, where they have been ensconced ever since.

Every time I recite them, they and many other such phrases fill me with a sense of security and Divine protection.

I am only on my maiden journey through the universe of Guru Granth Sahib, as I am still in the midst of my first sehaj paatth, which will take me several years to complete at the pace of a page or two a day.

This process was delayed by a recent six-month period of serious illness. During that time, when I did not always have the stamina to read and study Gurbani in conventional paper-and-ink form, I would often log onto a website which allows one to take a "cyber-hukam" of Guru Granth Sahib.

The most memorable and soul-satisfying of these online experiences, to date, came by means of a vaak from a Shabad written by Guru Arjan, found on page 290 of Guru Granth Sahib.

Part of Sukhmani Sahib, it contains these lines:

Sarab kalyaan sukh nidh naam

Boodat jaat paa-ay bisraam

Sagal dukh kaa hovat naas

Nanak naam japahu guntaas

 

"All joys and comforts are in the treasure of the Naam

Even the drowning can reach the place of rest and safety

All sorrows shall vanish

O Nanak, chant the Naam, the treasure of excellence"

            [translated by Dr. Sant Singh Khalsa]

 

This Shabad's powerful message will always be immensely meaningful to me. But on the pain-filled night when I saw it for the first time, it arrived as a veritable rescuing lifeline.

It could be said that beyond "word-pictures" painted by definitions, language generates "sound-pictures" evoked by vibrations. The impact of the ones created when we recite or listen to Gurbani help heighten our consciousness of the Divine.

This is one of the reasons why I learned to read Gurmukhi script. Although I constantly try my utmost to pronounce the words aloud as correctly as possible, my main effort, at this stage, is aimed towards trying to obtain maximum comprehension of the words' meanings. While uncaring sloppiness would indeed be highly intolerable, inadvertent mispronunciations are, in my opinion, not at all disrespectful to the Guru but rather a natural and normal part of learning and improving.

For the Guru in Guru Granth Sahib to come truly alive, one must be able to not only read its words but also understand the significance of its teachings and incorporate them into one's life. I have accepted that I will probably never be able to do this without reliance, to one degree or another, on English translations and commentaries.

I have no problem or guilt about doing this, as I believe there is no such thing as a holy language. So I presently use a four-volume version of Guru Granth Sahib that provides a translation in addition to the original script, along with the aid of several dictionaries and other reference tools. As I know that no translation, no matter how adeptly done, could ever totally replace an original text, I continually try to stretch my mind and ask myself, "What is the Guru really saying to me here?"

Since the Divine Word of the Shabad is itself the saroop of the Guru, I feel it is just as valid to read the words and study the message of Guru Granth Sahib using a computer.

For these purposes - please note I am not referring to formal congregational worship here - Guru Granth Sahib online (or in a multi-volume print version that includes translation) is as much of a saroop for me as the traditional format.

When precious moments of Grace arrive and Ambrosial Nectar rains down, I perceive the essence of the Shabad and taste its ethereal sweetness just the same.

This is my Love Story so far between my Guru and I: the first steps of what is very much a work-in-progress.

I could not feel more blessed that this is the path I have been led to, through Divine Grace. Although I cannot know what peaks and valleys it will take me to, I walk on it faithfully trusting that it will be exactly the way The One wills it to be!

 

September 8, 2008

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