INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

other as equals find expression in language uses. A person conducting work for the
scripture and the congregation will be termed sevak, literally “servant”, “attendant”
or “follower”, 349 or “the servant of the Guru “(Guru ka/da sevak), irrespective of his or
her social status or belonging. The gurdwara creates what Victor Turner (1969) has
termed “communitas”, that is, an alternative mode of relationship between humans,
or an anti-structure to the ordinary social system in which social roles are based on
rules of kinship relations, caste and clan hierarchies. Unlike ordinary rules and social
stratification within the organization of a society, communitas creates new boundaries
of communal space and defines a sociability which corresponds to the image of a
society regarded as a homogenous totality. 350
The ideal mode of relationships continually recreated within the spaces of
gurdwaras and devotional gatherings serves to underscore the absolute authority of
the Guru over the Sikhs, coupled with an absolute equality between the Sikhs as
inferior servants to the Guru. To promote another value system in the presence of the
Guru Granth Sahib, the social rules which normally would define borders of interaction
and regulate cultural practices, such as consumption of food, are consciously
transformed or neutralized within these spaces. Inside the gurdwara a middle class
man of high status may serve food and polish the sandals of a poor low caste woman
‒ his very opposite on all social divisions in ordinary life – to foster humbleness and
produce good karma for the future, even if he would put his social reputation and
status at a stake if he considered performing the same acts in his everyday life on the
outside.
From a religious viewpoint the performance of humble services may be
viewed as an implementation of the Guru’s teaching and generate intense religious
experiences of the underlying divine ethos of equality and unity between all humans,
in contrast to social differentiations on the outside. It is to make a divine plan present
in the social world of humans, at least momentarily. Duplications of actions in the
gurdwara give form to dominant values held by the group and create experiences
that neutralize or reverse the ordinary social structure it runs parallel to. Within the
spatial borders of the gurdwara individuals temporarily abandon their regular social
selves to become a collective body of loyal servants. The Sikh communitas is yet
based on the pre-existing social structure and functions as a conscious neutralization
of the ordinary social rules. A wealthy man who participates in seva practices inside
the gurdwara to pursue spiritual merits will certainly upgrade his status and gain
social power and reputation in the outside society. People will talk of him as a kind
and religious person because he performs acts of humility which otherwise would
degrade his position in the everyday life. An act considered low grading, and even
polluting, in an ordinary social situation transforms to a merit-bestowing service in
the Guru’s house. The higher the contrast is between the expected behaviors of peo-
349
Gill & Joshi 1999: 132.
350
Turner 1969.
178
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008