INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

immortal (an antithesis of death or mortality ‒ mrt) and a noun recurrently used in
Hindu mythology for the ambrosia of the gods conferring immortality. In the Sikh
tradition amrit bears a similar connotation of being a divine substance, although the
term has been intimately associated with the celestial words laid down in the Guru
Granth Sahib. In the poetic language of the Gurus, the word amrit frequently signifies
a divine essence inherent in the divine word (shabad), 475 name (nam), 476 speech
(bani), 477 will (bhana), 478 and the Guru’s teaching (gurmat). 479 In some compositions
these various aspects of the divine are portrayed as means by which the ambrosial
nectar, stemming from a divine source, is obtained or granted to those Guru-oriented
persons who are fully engaged in devotion and have reached a state of union with the
divine. 480 In other verses the ontological status and essence of amrit is fully identified
with divine words. 481 When a local granthi in Varanasi was inquired about the meaning
of the word amrit he spontaneously quoted the popular stanza of Guru Ramdas in
Rag Nat Narayan:
Gurbani is the embodiment of the Guru and the Guru is the embodiment
of Gurbani. In the whole of Gurbani is contained the Nectar [amrit].
482
According to his exegesis, amrit is both a divine essence inherent in gurbani and a
direct experience – a “flavour” or “taste” (ras) ‒ of God that is generated whenever
people engage in the words of Guru Granth Sahib with sincere devotion. Over and
again, my informants compared the reading of gurbani hymns with eating or tasting
sweets, particularly brown sugar lumps (ghor). Alluding to oft-quoted hymns in the
Guru Granth Sahib, 483 a few exemplified the experience of God with the act of giving
sweets to a mute man: he can easily feel the taste of it but is incapable of expressing
his feeling in words. 484 Engaging in gurbani generates aesthetic, sensual, and ontologi-
475
See e.g. GGS: 35, 119.
476
GGS: 29, 33, 49, 155, 522, 1189.
477
GGS: 72, 494.
478
GGS: 31, 119.
479
GGS: 493, 494.
480
GGS: 352, 511, 918, 1126. The prototype and motif of amrit as divine substance transmitted to
the Sikh Guru is found in the Puratan Janam-sakhi (see Chapter 2).
481
A popular hymn of Guru Amardas goes: “the Shabad is Amrit; the Lord’s Bani is Amrit”(GGS:
119).
482
GGS: 982.
483
See for instance Guru Arjan’s verse: “I drink in the Invaluable Nectar of the Naam, the Name
of the Lord. Like the mute, I can only smile - I cannot speak of its flavor” (GGS: 1205). Namdev
writes: “The mute tastes the most sublime ambrosial nectar, but if you ask him to describe it, he
cannot”(GGS: 657).
484
An elderly shopkeeper added that the sweetness of gurbani always remains irrespective of
place and time, whether you eat a piece of sugar in the shop, at home, or anywhere, it will still
give a sweet flavour.
276
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008