INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

Looking at the ways in which Amritdhari Sikhs adjust their daily discipline to an
everyday life, temporal considerations are of importance, although not in a rigid
manner. There is no exact time prescribed for the morning recitations, more than it
should be completed within the range of amritvela, the nectar hours that span from
two to six in the morning. Apparently the time period of amritvela was earlier adjusted
to an agricultural lifestyle. Religious activities such as reciting gurbani would
frame a working day which started before dawn and ended in the late afternoon at
sunset. Considering that the concept of amritvela is associated with religious peace
and merits in the Guru Granth Sahib, Sikhs will attach various meanings to waking
before sunrise. An elderly Amritdhari man saw several advantages:
The first benefit you will get from awakening in amritvela is that your
age will increase. And secondly, it is the best time to remember God.
There will be no one to disturb you. You can concentrate. If you want
to take the name of truth then you recite in the morning. This time you
can reach God. Even the sants and mahatmas used to get up early, and
many people get up at 4, some even at 2.30. If you take care of amritvela
there will be no troubles [in the day]. During that time you do not
think about work. You get up, take a bath and think only of puja path.
There is nothing to say about those people who sleep until 8.
Although the majority of my interlocutors were accustomed waking and taking a
bath between 4 and 5 in the morning, a few zealous Amritdhari men, all in their twenties
and unmarried, made solemn efforts to follow a practice of rising between 2 and
2.30 in the night to recite the panj banian. One of them, a bachelor working full-time at
a store retailing spare parts, asserted that amritvela falls between midnight and 4 am,
and the earlier people would get up from bed the more merit-bestowing would the
morning prayers be. He had scheduled his daily routine in the following way:
PERSONAL MORNING ROUTINE
Awake at 3.00 am
Take a full shower with hair wash
Short simran on the gurmantra (Vahiguru)
Recite Panj banian (approx. 25 ‒ 30 minutes):
JapJi Sahib, 10 minutes
Jap Sahib, 6 minutes
Tav Prashad Savaiyye, 4 minutes
Chaupai Sahib, 2 minutes
Anand Sahib, 3 minutes
Read Ardas
Take tea
Take rest
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008