INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

India, the notion of chilla denotes an intensive spiritual retreat for a forty-day period
during which a devout person will stay isolated from the outer world to be fully
dedicated to meditation and austere practices, sometimes accompanied with food
restrictions and rules for body postures. 450 Forty days is widely recognized as an
auspicious period that indicates the change from one stage to another. To complete
solitary practices for this long duration is perceived as a test in faith and courage that
has the potential of conferring blessings and supernatural knowledge, even transforming
the undertaker’s spiritual and social status. A similar cultural conviction of
regularity and commitment seems to underlie the Sikh practice of conducting recitations
for forty days. It is a period of complete dedication to gurbani, believed to preserve
the spiritual power (siddhi) of the doer and generate favorable results. 451
In these settings the single gurbani verse or hymn is repeated as a sacred formula,
which in combination with the disciplined life-style generates positive effects.
The practice resembles the use of mantras and sacred spells found in so many other
cultural contexts and which often emanates from a belief that redundant and accumulative
repetitions of sacred words work as keys to unlock hidden meanings and produce
supernatural powers. Unlike scholarly propositions that sacred speech are unintelligible
sounds devoid of semantic meanings or loose prepositional forces in the
process of formalization, 452 the gurbani verses selected for regimented recitations
typically display a strong semantic relationship with the declared purposes for which
they are used. For example, a composition in which Guru Arjan portrays the marriage
between human and God by the image of a lovesick and yearning woman who finally
unites with her beloved at his bed can be recited by a woman a number of times to
make her husband, stationed in a foreign country, return home. 453 The allegory or
theme elaborated in the text highlights a semantic similarity with the purpose or
reason for which the verse can be recited in the social world. If the Gurus dressed
their devotion and praises to God in metaphors within Guru Granth Sahib, then the
which mark out the spaces (chilla-hane) at which Guru Nanak is said to have undertaken a chilla
of mediation and seclusion.
450
In classical and regional musical traditions in India (like the Punjab gharana), a chilla is a preparatory
stage in the musical training of performers. For forty days in a row the trainee performer
will play an instrument as a test of inner force and dedication. If the novice stands the
test, the intensive musical and spiritual practice of a chilla is believed to give a special flavor to
his or her future performances and will transform him to a master of the art. A Sikh ragi performer
who has undergone this period will sometimes be given the honorific title “sant” to
indicate his spiritual commitment and status.
451
In addition, the word chilla signifies the discipline to attend the gurdwara to present prayer
and light a candle for forty days in a row and a period of seclusion for the mother after childbirth
(See Chapter 4).
452
The former position has been propounded by Staal (1979a) and the latter by Bloch (1989).
453
The ritual instructions for the exemplified verse (GGS: 384) is found in Sankat Mochan compiled
by Giani Narain Singh.
253
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008