INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

or on the roof terrace. One family had converted a whole garage into a place for Guru
Granth Sahib, and in another family with less living space an outdoor balcony had
been enclosed with walls and windows to provide a room for the Guru. Local Sikhs
are of the strong opinion that domestic gurdwaras should always stand on freehold
and never in rentals where people are circulating. As I will return to below, families
are scrupulous about keeping these accommodations clean and giving the scripture a
proper ministration to secure the dignity and respect which the Guru is entitled.
In addition to the aforementioned examples of relatively permanent establishments,
a gurdwara can be established anywhere provided the presence of Guru
Granth Sahib, or, to put it differently, wherever the scripture is ceremonially installed
a gurdwara exists. Temporal gurdwaras are often erected for a limited period of time
in family houses, shops or at other places especially when families are arranging
Akhand path, the 48-hours unbroken reading of the whole scripture, in connection
with major festivals and family events. Although Sikhs put a great deal of effort in
decorating the space around their Guru, the minimal requirement of a temporal
gurdwara is a clean room that provides a seat with palanquin and robes for installation
of the Guru Granth Sahib.
To confine the signification of a gurdwara to the aforesaid institutional meanings
would still be to exclude the diverse perceptions, emotions, and experiences
people charge the word with. A gurdwara is the place where the most significant life
events occur in the presence of the Guru ‒ one meets a life-partner, gets married, and
eventually will bide farewell to the social life after death. One woman said she had
“heard” divine words speaking to her in the gurdwara and was blessed with a pregnancy
as a result of insistent prayers for a son. The space of the gurdwara is believed
to manifest a divine presence, within which humans feel they engage and communicate
with God and share these religious experiences with others. It is noteworthy that
all of my respondents associated the term gurdwara with peace (shant) or asserted
they had experienced an inner feeling of peace within that space. In extremely humble
terms, a Sikh woman in her twenties said:
A gurdwara is the medium to get in touch with God, where I realize
that there is someone who is much greater than me. That is the place
where God listens to all, even small creatures like ants. The place forces
arrogant people to bow.
Though some respondents would promptly add that communication with God is not
restricted to manmade edifices in the material world, but a divine presence exists
everywhere, within us and especially in the devotional assembly of people who are
singing and meditating upon the divine name. Utilizing a rather philosophical parable,
a fifty-year-old Sikh businesswoman said the gurdwara building is merely a
microcosmic model, or a replica, of the divine domicile that humans store within
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008