INSIDE THE GURU'S GATE - Anpere

themes of a written gurbani hymn determine the expected results from reciting the
verse. When choosing a gurbani hymn for a particular purpose or reason, the selection
is based on a semantic relationship between the language within the text and the
desired result from a recitation of the text. When a Sikh woman wishes for a child
she will therefore select a scriptural hymn which has prepositional meanings that
draws upon a theme which corresponds to her personal wish. As she is reciting the
composition, she is not merely reproducing sounds or the semantic content of the
text, but quotes the text with prior intentions of achieving something from her performance.
In this case the illucutionary force of her recitation is to gain supernatural
assistance to receive a healthy son. In the moment of reciting, she is also attributing a
perlouctionary effect to the recitation act, as she believes that her own performance
will actually produce a real effect, that is, to protect the fetus in her womb and even
determine its sexual identity. Recitations of gurbani hymns are not considered merely
symbolic action nor disconnected from the semantic content of the text, but are believed
to produce real bodily and moral effects on the mother and fetus.
Delivery is similarly marked with text recitations but involves different actors.
In former days many castes and clans would send the pregnant daughter-in-law to
her parents’ house for delivery of the first-born child. The delivery work was completed
with the help of traditional mid-wives and surrounded by customs to secure a
lucky birth. Today the majority of Sikhs choose to have deliveries in hospitals and
many of the traditional customs earlier adjusted to a rural living are deemed irrelevant
to the modern and urban life-style. Since the pregnant woman is entering a critical
physical stage and the husband and other male relatives are generally excluded
from delivery wards it is the men of the household who will answer for religious
worship that aims to protect the mother and the child.
A Sikh man in his thirties explained that when the labor pains began he read
an Ardas at the house before taking his wife to the hospital. On the way he continuously
did simran and recited the name of God (Vahiguru) for divine protection and to
relieve the pains of his wife. After she had been registered at the hospital and was
transferred to the delivery ward the man sat in the waiting room and for hours recited
Guru Gobind Singh’s composition Chaupai Sahib. “Everything passed well by
that,” he concluded. Recitation of Chaupai Sahib is by many Sikhs believed to provide
protection and eliminate anxieties. In case the labor entails complications both men
and women of the household will gather to do puja path of the composition at the
house.
Provided that delivery goes well and the mother and the child are healthy, the
first a newborn baby should get in touch with is the name of God (Vahiguru) and
gurbani. It is customary to whisper Vahiguru, recite the initial “root mantra” of Guru
Granth Sahib (mulmantra), or read the whole composition of JapJi Sahib in the ears of
the infant. As one interlocutor said, uttering Vahiguru should be seen as thanks to
God for having a child born in a Sikh family and a supplication for the future spiritual
development of the child. If God’s name is the first word an infant gets to hear,
he or she will more likely dedicate the adult life to remembrance and contemplation
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Published on www.anpere.net in May 2008