INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

The cornerstone of katha is devotion. To tell and listen to stories about God and
the Sikh Gurus and expounding the teaching in the scripture, are devotional acts
believed to endow knowledge for spiritual progress. For religious Sikhs the message
of Guru Granth Sahib is conceived as universal and timeless, and it is the ongoing
process of interpretations by knowledgeable Sikhs that will make the message perpetually
relevant to changing times. The exegete is to realize and reveal hidden meanings
in the encompassing teaching with power to mirror every aspect of the human
reality. In this sense katha is not a systematic analysis of texts but it provides a devotional
means to dwell on perceived truths of the Gurus and look at life and the world
through gurbani. Although the canon is sealed, the oral exegesis provides a living
commentary to make the teaching of the scripture vivid.
People reckon katha as an excellent medium for religious edification and education.
It plays an important role in creating ethical and moral attitudes and ethusing
people towards rigtheous action. It is noteworthy that 46 percent of the informants
who participated in the semi-structured interviews stated they have learnt about Sikh
doctrines, the tradition and history from religious discourses in the gurdwara. The
majority of respondents said family members (57 percent), and particularly parents
and grandparents, were the most significant asset for religious learning, while a fewer
number alleged they had pursued knowledge from books (23 percent) and school (11
percent). Even if the data is too scanty for any general conclusion, the figures seem to
indicate that oral discourses continue to constitute a vital element for the transmission
of tradition. Despite high rates of literacy and access to a growing bulk of written
exegetical commentaries and narratives in books and on the Internet, many Sikhs still
choose to learn and explore the meanings of the Sikh scripture through live oral performances.
NARRATIVE STYLES AND TECHNIQUES
Dependent on the material and themes brought into focus, modern katha performances
can be generalized into three broad categories that here will be termed gurbanioriented,
history-oriented, and comparative discourses. The first category usually
goes by the name gurbani katha or gurbani vichar and more specifically refers to interpretations
and reflections upon the Gurus’ teaching. Standard expositions in this
category dwell on literal and subtler meanings of a didactic portion of stanzas or
hymns from the Guru Granth Sahib, such as the mulmantra or JapJi Sahib, or explain
general messages in the Sikh scripture, often with the aim to convey moral truths to
foster faith and worship routines. As one local kathakar explained, vichar is intended
to develop people’s thinking, make them continually progress and reach results, and
is different from argumentation in which people already have their “mind set” and
are not willing to expand their horizons. Apart from quotes from the corpus of texts
ascribed gurbani status, the orator may take use of cross-references to a body of suitable
illustrations in the narrative tradition, Punjabi proverbs, short-stories, and aphorisms
to create allegories, analogies and images, which serve to explain and support a
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008