INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

liable to spirit possession and other types of afflictions since the space of their inner
gurdwara is empty, “but if you recite Vahiguru, even the shivering from a cold bath in
the winter season will disappear.” According to a general opinion the Sikh Gurus
instituted the recitative repetition of the divine name (nam japna) as a devotional
practice for all Sikhs, but for illiterates in particular. If they repeat the name of Vahiguru
108 times with devotion, it will grant the same value and substitute readings
from the Sikh scripture. For literates, recitations of the gurmantra for one hour may
work as a temporary replacement for the daily nitnem, or a “relaxation” as some
termed it, when a person is physically ill or for some other reason is unable to carry
out the daily gurbani recitations. Another less common but still existent type of simran
for literates is the practice to quantitatively collect and recollect the divine name by
spelling Vahiguru in Gurmukhi script a number of times in a notepad. When the book
is filled with inscribed names of God it will be ceremonially immersed in the river
Ganga. 544 The various practices included in the concept of simran are regarded as
worship forms by which people may gain spiritual merits.
The majority of my interlocutors ascribed simran the dual definition of being
an interior activity of recalling and keeping the divine name in one’s mind (simran),
and an outer action of articulating the name in sound (japna). In both cases the sacred
formula of Vahiguru is the vehicle and object of repeated action performed mentally
and through speech. The internal remembrance can be momentary evocations during
spare time or in any situation of experienced need, but as a regular devotional practice
(sadhna) of simran it should be anchored in two conditions within humans: concentration
of the mind and devotion to the divine from a true heart. Outer sensuous
impression is to be intentionally avoided in order to focus the mind on internal read-
544
An elderly businesswoman said: “When I am sitting in my shop and I am free, I just write
Vahiguru on three to four pages. When there is nothing to do, then I keep only Vahiguru in my
mind. I write in Gurmukhi.” This discipline is based on an idea similar to the institutionalized
“Ram-bank” in Varanasi ‒ a Ram temple which was formed in the beginning of the twentieth
century after the banking world. Following the popular idea that the effects of a mantra (siddhi)
come to practitioners with 125000 completed names, literate devotees suffering from afflictions
or with specific desires can take “writing-loans” of 125000 names of Ram from this “bank”. The
client pays by daily instalments of writing 500 names of Ram on papers for a total period of
seven months and ten days. These papers will then be collected by the bank and followed by a
puja for the borrower and his or her wishes or desired ends (Myrvold 2002a). As Lutgendorf
notes, the exercise of writing out divine formula is not new. At the Sankat Mochan Mandir in
Varanasi, for instance, devotees present Hanuman with paper garlands adorned with inscriptions
of “Ram” (Lutgendorf 1991: 413). Maybe the Ramnamis ‒ an untouchable community in
Central India devoted to Ram ‒ has taken this custom to the most far-reaching extent. The Ramnamis
inscribe the name of Ram in Devanagri script over their faces and bodies, sometime covering
the entire skin, and wear distinctive dresses that are printed with the sacred name. In an
ethnographic study of the Ramnamis, Lamb highlights that bodily inscriptions stand as testimonies
for a lifelong commitment to Ram and the community of worship. In fact, the tattoos are
often described as Ram’s inscription on human bodies. In other words, it is an act of the deity,
who manifests his sacred and purifying name on human flesh (Lamb 2002: 84).
315
Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008