INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

devotional activities. The young man said that simran should not be a goal–oriented
practice in the sense that it is performed to procure spiritual or material ends in this
life: “It does not have any end; it is just to concentrate on God.” Other interlocutors
would present simran as the primary contemplative method of gaining merits for the
future and set the practice within a more mythological framework: God watches over
people who take out time to remember the divine name and all names will be calculated
in a divine court. When the human soul reaches the court after death the celestial
book-keeper Chitra Gupt balances the accounts of an individual life and the total
accumulation of remembered names will determine the next rebirth.
Unlike popular Western perceptions of “meditation” as a silent and introspect
practice, the idea of simran in a local Sikh setting involves continuous repetition and
listening to the gurmantra, as effective means to focus on the object of invocation. The
interior remembrance and contemplation is accomplished by different formalized
practices of repeating the divine name (nam japna), either in a soundless manner or
with words in audible speech. Preferably Sikhs should adopt a regular discipline of
reciting Vahiguru in the early morning hours of amritvela when the mind is fresh and
the surroundings peaceful. The technique can be carried out as a simple recitation or
by using a rosary with 27 or 108 beads, each of which is rolled off with the forefinger
and thumb to the utterance of the gurmantra. The reciter should select a quiet place to
establish a temporary seat and assume a sitting posture (samadhi) for the contemplative
recital. There are no prescribed or fixed numbers to recite the gurmantra. 546 Instead,
the guiding rule seems to be as much as possible according to individual ability.
The repetition can be uttered loudly or soundless in unison with the heartbeats or
breathing. A mere mechanical repetition of Vahiguru from one’s lips, however, is not
considered sufficient. One elderly man said: “You have to remember God by your
heart, only then God will listen… You may recite the whole day, but nothing will
happen if you do not remember God from within.” The practice of nam japna will
only prove favourable when propelled with sincere devotion and the mind is immersed
in contemplation on the divine name.
The practice of simran is believed to induce people to do righteous deeds and
should ideally underlie all action and deeds in the Sikh life. Over and again, my informants
coupled simran with the term seva, the selfless service to the Guru, codevotees
and humans in general, and described these two concepts as two interdependent
aspects – an inner and an outer ‒ of the Sikh devotional life. A Sikh man in
his fifties expressed himself in the following way:
Seva and simran, they are two parts of life. Simran is remembering God
and seva is done by your hands. If you want to cross the bhavsagar of
this world seva and simran is like the boat and boatman. If you want to
cross you need a boat and boatman who can row you over. If you just
have one of them you cannot cross the sea.
546
Except for when 108 Vahiguru recitations are executed in lieu of gurbani readings.
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008